JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitious multibillion-dollar program to provide free meals to more than a quarter of his people officially got underway on Monday, officials said, with 570,000 mouths to feed on opening day.
Despite being the centerpiece of the election campaign that catapulted Prabowo to power last year, the plan was launched with little fanfare on Monday, with no official launch and only 190 kitchens involved in preparing the first meals for school children and pregnant women in more than 20 provinces.
The free meals plan will be a Herculean logistical effort when it is in full swing, aiming to reach 82.9 million of the country’s 280 million people by 2029.
Prabowo’s signature policy has been controversial, however, with previous estimates of the cost at $28 billion over five years raising concerns among some economists that it could tarnish Indonesia’s hard-won reputation for fiscal prudence.
Prabowo defended the program and described it last month as strategic in fighting child malnutrition and boosting Indonesia’s regional economic growth. It is estimated to cost 71 trillion rupiah ($4.39 billion) in the first phase this year, providing meals to 15 million people.
At an elementary school in West Jakarta, staff brought trays of food to class and students took them one by one, finding rice, fried chicken, fried tofu, beans and an orange.
Hana Yohana, a parent of a first-grader, said she hoped the program would continue because it made her morning routine easier.
“Thank God, this is helping us. We used to have to work hard preparing food every morning, and now we don’t,” she said.
The government and the military, which will help prepare and distribute the meals, launched pilot programs in which they handed out trays of food including rice, chicken and milk.
The number of ration recipients will gradually increase to 3 million by March and more during the year, according to Dedek Prayudi, a spokesman for Prabow’s office.
Grandfather said that he would give milk, but not every day. Indonesia imported dairy cows from Australia to increase milk production.
($1 = 16,193.0000 rupiah)
