1 week ago
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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Dadan Hindayana, Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), stated that the Free Nutritious Meal program is projected to reach 82.9 million beneficiaries by the end of 2025. To meet this target, the BGN anticipates using a budget of Rp1 trillion per day by November.
Dadan conveyed that President Prabowo Subianto has set a goal of establishing 32,000 nutrition fulfillment service units by the end of November 2025. "Serving 82.9 million individuals by the end of November will need a monthly budget of Rp25 trillion, or Rp1 trillion per day," he explained during an Economic Gathering held at Menara Mandiri, Sudirman, Jakarta, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
As previously reported, the BGN received an initial allocation of Rp71 trillion from the state budget for the current year. Dadan expressed confidence that the budget is not a problem in the implementation of the free meal program, citing the Head of State's commitment to supplementing these funds.
"This budget appears to have been guaranteed by Pak Prabowo. Whatever [financial resources] the nutrition agency needs will be prepared," he affirmed.
According to him, the President has made preparations to provide an additional budget of Rp100 trillion. However, he stopped short of revealing the specific timeline for the disbursement of these supplementary funds.
During his presentation, Dadan detailed the progress in the distribution of the free meals. In January 2025, the Nutrition Agency had served 570,000 beneficiaries across 26 provinces. By February, the distribution of supplementary nutrition had expanded to reach 2.2 million individuals. Leading up to the recent Eid al-Fitr celebrations, there were 1,009 operational nutrition fulfillment service units catering to 3 million beneficiaries.
The Nutrition Agency has also recruited graduates from various regions across the archipelago to assist in the operational aspects of the program. These graduates underwent specialized training for three to four months at the University of Defense (Unhan).
For two months, they were trained to become reserve components (Komcad) of the armed forces. Subsequently, for approximately one to two months, they received instruction in food safety protocols, food preparation techniques, including basic agricultural farming methods.
To date, 2,000 graduates from the first two cohorts have commenced their work in 38 provinces. "The initial batch was entirely funded through philanthropic contributions. So they began their service in February," Dadan noted.
In contrast, the second cohort's training was financed by the state budget. Currently, there are approximately 30,000 development-oriented graduates across Indonesia under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense. They are scheduled to complete their education at Unhan in July 2025.
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