The Reading / Listening - Free School Meals - Level 1

Indonesia served free breakfast to 570,000 children and pregnant women on Monday. This is because of the "Free Nutritious Meal Programme". More than 190 kitchens cooked the free food. More kitchens will soon spread nationwide. The programme was an election promise of Indonesia's president. He wants to feed a quarter of Indonesians by 2029. He also wants to end malnutrition. A fifth of Indonesia's children under five have poor nutrition.

The president said: "Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line [and] go to school without breakfast." The mother of an elementary school child said: "Thank God. This really helps us. We normally have to work hard preparing food, but now we don't." The government said: "This is a historic moment. For the first time, our country is conducting a nationwide nutrition program for children, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers."

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Free School Meals - Level 0 Free School Meals - Level 2   or  Free School Meals - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/1/6/indonesia-kicks-off-first-free-meal-programme-for-children-pregnant-women
  • https://apnews.com/article/indonesia-prabowo-subianto-free-meals-children-mothers-213a04587203434f3f85950725e84a8b
  • https://www.arabnews.com/node/2585436/world


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. Indonesia served free breakfast
  2. pregnant
  3. More than 190 kitchens
  4. an election
  5. He wants to feed a quarter
  6. He also wants to end
  7. A fifth of Indonesia's children
  8. poor
  1. under five
  2. promise
  3. of Indonesians
  4. women
  5. nutrition
  6. to 570,000 children
  7. cooked the free food
  8. malnutrition

Paragraph 2

  1. Too many of our
  2. below the poverty
  3. go to school
  4. The mother of an elementary
  5. This really
  6. We normally have to work
  7. preparing
  8. pregnant and
  1. helps us
  2. without breakfast
  3. breastfeeding mothers
  4. food
  5. line
  6. school child
  7. hard
  8. brothers and sisters

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Indonesia served free breakfast to 570,000 (1) _______________ women on Monday. This is because of the "Free Nutritious Meal Programme". More than 190 kitchens (2) ___________________ food. More kitchens (3) ___________________ nationwide. The programme was an (4) ___________________ Indonesia's president. He wants to feed (5) ___________________ Indonesians by 2029. He also wants to end malnutrition. A fifth of Indonesia's children under five (6) ___________________.

The president said: "Too (7) ___________________ brothers and sisters are below (8) ___________________ [and] go to school without breakfast." The mother of an elementary school child said: "Thank God. This (9) ___________________. We normally have to work (10) ___________________, but now we don't." The government said: "This is (11) ___________________. For the first time, our country is conducting a nationwide nutrition program for children, (12) ___________________ breastfeeding mothers."

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

Indonesiaservedfreebreakfastto570,000childrenandpregnantwom
enonMonday.Thisisbecauseofthe"FreeNutritiousMealProgramme".
Morethan190kitchenscookedthefreefood.Morekitchenswillsoonspre
adnationwide.TheprogrammewasanelectionpromiseofIndonesia'sp
resident.HewantstofeedaquarterofIndonesiansby2029.Healsowant
stoendmalnutrition.AfifthofIndonesia'schildrenunderfivehavepoorn
utrition.Thepresidentsaid:"Toomanyofourbrothersandsistersarebel
owthepovertyline[and]gotoschoolwithoutbreakfast."Themotherofa
nelementaryschoolchildsaid:"ThankGod.Thisreallyhelpsus.Wenorm
allyhavetoworkhardpreparingfood,butnowwedon't."Thegovernmen
tsaid:"Thisisahistoricmoment.Forthefirsttime,ourcountryisconducti
nganationwidenutritionprogramforchildren,andpregnantandbreastf
eedingmothers."

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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