Latest news with #DadanHindayana
The Star
2 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Indonesia learns from S. Korea to develop local ingredients for free meals
Staff preparing lunch plates on Jan 6, 2025, the first day of the free nutritious meal programme, at a kitchen in Bogor, West Java. - AFP JAKARTA: Indonesia will learn from South Korea in developing local ingredients for the free nutritious meal programme by considering environmental aspects, National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Dadan Hindayana said on Wednesday (July 23). 'I know that the Koica [Korea International Cooperation Agency] has long been involved in agriculture for a long time,' Dadan told participants of the National Instrumentation Center for Agromaritime and Bioscience (NICAB) workshop at the IPB International Convention Center (IICC). 'I believe this is the right time because when the free meals programme was developed, 95 per cent of ingredients being used were agricultural produce.' The workshop was jointly organised by the Koica and Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) from Wednesday to Friday. Participants came from the Higher Education, Science and Technology Ministry, the National Research and Innovation Agency and the National Development Planning Board, as well as academicians and leaders from Indonesia's top universities. Dadan said that Korea used local ingredients for its free meal program, something that can be adopted here. 'In the future, we will also do something like that, because our need will be big. We are already on the right track, similar to what South Korea and Japan developed, we will emphasise the use of local ingredients,' he said. 'Every SPPG [nutrition fulfilment service unit] and nutritionists will craft a menu based on the potential of local resources and also the preference of the local people.' He added that once the programme was up and running, food resilience in every village and district will increase, so there will be no food deficiency at the national level. "We are learning from South Korea that as the programme progresses, the use of local ingredients will be intensified,' he said. Meanwhile, project comanager for the KOICA-IPB-Seoul National University Center for Agriculture and Bioscience, Rinekso Soekmadi, said that the NICAB workshop was a cooperation initiative between IPB and South Korea. 'This workshop is in its third year, and we focus on food because it is aligned with national program,' he said. 'We hope there will further cooperation between Indonesia and South Korea, especially to make the nutritious meal programme a success.' Dadan said the South Korean side explained that their free meal programme covered 1,300 schools and needed nine years to develop with a population of just 51 million. 'We just started six months ago and have reached seven million beneficiaries with 2,259 SPPGs. We hope to reach 82.9 million recipients by year-end,' he said. With 3,000 students, each unit will require 200 kilograms of uncooked rice every day. For protein, it requires 3,000 eggs or 350 1-kg chickens. Also needed are 350 kg of vegetables, which cannot be supplied by a single farmer and must be coordinated by village-owned enterprises and cooperatives, and 350 kg of fruit. He said that vendors selling locally grown bananas in Sentul were happy that SPPGs buy their fruit in large quantities every day. 'We also need 490 liters of milk. If a dairy cow produces 10 litres of milk per day, each SPPG needs 50 cows. If there are 10 SPPGs in a district, the district needs 500 cows,' he said. Dadan said every SPPG has a budget of Rp 10 billion (US$612,100) per year, with 85 per cent of the budget used to buy ingredients, of which 90 percent are agricultural products. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
The Star
30-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Indonesia cuts outlay on giant free meal plan
Planned spending on the programme is now forecast at 350 trillion rupiah next year. — AFP JAKARTA: Indonesia has trimmed spending plans for what could still be the world's second-most expensive free meal programme, offering modest relief from fiscal pressures as President Prabowo Subianto advances a host of big-ticket projects. Planned spending on the programme, which targets reaching 83 million people in the coming months, is now forecast at 350 trillion rupiah next year after officials revised ingredient cost estimates lower by a third, said Dadan Hindayana, head of the newly created National Nutrition Agency. That marked a 22% drop from spending plans earlier this year. This year's expenditures are expected to total about US$7.5bil, Hindayana said in a recent interview. That represented a 29% reduction from prior plans. The recalibration of the five-days-a-week programme, aimed at improving health outcomes for students, children under five, and pregnant or breastfeeding women in the world's fourth-most populous nation, could ease some investor concerns about Indonesia's budget deficit outlook. — Bloomberg
The Star
20-06-2025
- Health
- The Star
Uncooked rice, ultra-processed food included in free meals programme
A student of state junior high school (SMPN) 1 Denpasar in Bali shows a variety of food items received as part of the government free meals programme on March 17, 2025. - Antara JAKARTA: The government's free nutritious meal programme has once again come under public scrutiny following reports of uncooked ingredients and ultra-processed foods being distributed in South Tangerang, Banten, as schools begin their holiday break this week. A foundation operating the Cempaka Putih Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG) in East Ciputat, South Tangerang, Banten, admitted to including uncooked rice in its meal packages, alongside protein sources, fruit and ultra-high temperature milk so the food 'could be taken home and stored for longer periods'. The kitchen stated via its Instagram account, @sppg_yasmit_cemput, earlier this week that the menu was adjusted due to most schools being on break. However, the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) that oversees the programme emphasised that it had never instructed any SPPG to distribute raw food items. 'Distributing raw food is not part of the free nutritious meal policy. There should be no such initiative,' BGN head Dadan Hindayana told The Jakarta Post on Thursday (June 19), adding that the agency had ordered the Cempaka Putih SPPG to immediately halt the practice. 'SPPG units are responsible for continuing to provide meals during school holidays, but only if students and teachers are willing to come to the school. If they don't, then no service should be provided,' Dadan explained. While the BGN has yet to issue an official policy on how the free meals programme should operate during the school break, Dadan confirmed the agency was currently drafting technical guidelines to address such situations. 'If students are able to come to school, meals will be provided as fresh, ready-to-eat food,' the agency emphasised. Otherwise, the distribution will be adjusted to prioritise other eligible groups, including pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and toddlers. The programme, a flagship initiative from President Prabowo Subianto's election campaign last year, seeks to tackle the country's persistently high stunting rate, which affects more than 21 per cent of children across Indonesia's population of approximately 282 million. The government initially allocated Rp 71 trillion (US$$.3 billion) from the 2025 state budget for the programme, later increasing it by an additional Rp 100 trillion to expand its coverage. In May, it announced that the BGN would receive around Rp 217 trillion next year for the implementation of the free meals programme, the largest allocation among 98 ministries and agencies. Despite receiving high-level attention from the President, the programme continues to face challenges, including food safety concerns. The latest incident occurred at a kindergarten in Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta, where several students reportedly suffered vomiting and diarrhoea after consuming free meals on Tuesday. The Kulon Progo Health Agency promptly dispatched a team to investigate the incident. Agency head Sri Budi expressed hope that the responsible SPPG unit would learn from the case and improve its operational standards, particularly regarding sanitation, food ingredient selection and storage. 'Schools must also remain vigilant. They need to inspect the food provided to children to prevent similar incidents from recurring,' he said, as quoted by - The Jakarta Post/ANN
