(Bloomberg) -- Indonesia has started a $30 billion program of free school lunches, aimed at improving health and educational outcomes in Southeast Asia’s most populous country.
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The meals were a campaign promise from President Prabowo Subianto who took office in October, and could eventually reach around 83 million people a day. Lunches will typically include rice, chicken meat and vegetables, but there was one notable product absent from the menu in Jakarta on day one: milk.
“Protein might come from chicken one day and milk the next, ensuring variety,” said Dedek Prayudi, a spokesperson for the presidential office. He said that around 570,000 students received a free lunch on Monday.
Indonesia has set aside 71 trillion rupiah ($4.39 billion) for the lunch program in the 2025 budget, with costs set to climb to to an eventual $30-billion a year outlay as the rollout broadens. The initial phase will only provide food to students, with pregnant and breastfeeding women, and toddlers to be included at a later stage.
In Palmerah, West Jakarta, 50 workers gathered to cook and pack lunches at 1 a.m. on Monday for 11 schools in the area. The large field kitchen sits on a 100-square-meter plot owned by the military, and meals were made up of rice, a small piece of chicken breast, long beans, fried tofu and fruit.
Palmerah is one of an expected 30,000 service units being set up by Indonesia to run the free meal program, with each designed to serve 3,000 students. In the first three months, the program is expected to provide three million meals, gradually increasing the service over the next four years.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy is embarking on an ambitious plan to boost its soft infrastructure as growth slows and the fiscal deficit remains manageable. Last year’s budget gap widened to 2.29% of gross domestic product, smaller than previously estimated, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said during a briefing on Monday.
“A manageable fiscal deficit in 2024 will provide a good foundation for the implementation of the 2025 budget,” Indrawati said.
One in five children under the age of five in the archipelago of 275 million people is considered too small for their age. Poor nutrition and school attendance means Indonesian students score lower in mathematics, reading, and science, and has often lagged neighbors such as Vietnam.