December 18, 2025 | 11:03 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government's flagship free nutritious meal (MBG) program has absorbed Rp52.9 trillion in budget as of December 15, said Deputy Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara.
"About 74.6 percent of its designated Rp71 trillion budget," he said during the APBN KiTa press conference on Thursday, December 18, referring to the State Budget, as quoted by Antara.
Over 50.7 million people have benefited from the program, he said, including school children and pregnant women. The government previously set a target of 82.9 million beneficiaries for free nutritious meals.
Based on the latest data, the MBG program has been operated by 17,555 Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG) throughout Indonesia and has absorbed 741,985 workers.
Meanwhile, the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is gearing up to accelerate the development of 8,200 MBG public kitchens in frontier, outermost, and underdeveloped regions next year.
This measure is taken to achieve the national beneficiary target, said BGN head Dadan Hindayana. The MBG program realization in the 3T regions is less than ideal.
"In these 3T regions, we plan for 8,200 kitchens but are only able to complete about 190 SPPG units by the end of this year," said Dadan after the MBG Implementation Coordination Meeting in Bandung on Wednesday, December 17, 2025.
To fill the gap in this infrastructure, Dadan emphasized that human resource readiness is the key, ensuring an accelerated selection process to support the operations in new kitchen units.
Dadan detailed that the BGN roadmap for next year will focus on regional balance. In addition to 8,200 units in remote regions, BGN also targets the operation of at least 25,400 SPPG in agglomeration areas or densely populated urban areas.
Meanwhile, for the short-term target at the end of 2025, BGN continues to strive to complete the establishment of 19,000 free nutritious meal kitchen units across Indonesia.
Read: Two Distribution Options for Indonesia's Free Meals During School Holidays
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