Indonesia is providing free school meals. Over 570,000 children and pregnant women got a free breakfast on Monday because of the "Free Nutritious Meal Programme". More than 190 kitchens in 20 provinces served the free food. More kitchens will soon spread nationwide. The programme was an election promise of President Prabowo Subianto. He wants to feed a quarter of Indonesians by 2029. Around 82 million people will get free food. Mr Subianto wants to end malnutrition in Indonesia. Around a fifth of children younger than five years old have poor nutrition.
President Subianto said: "Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line [and] go to school without breakfast." Many parents were happy. The mother of an elementary school child in Jakarta said: "Thank God. This really helps us. We normally have to work hard preparing food every morning, but now we don't." A government spokesperson said: "This is a historic moment for Indonesia. For the first time, our country is conducting a nationwide nutrition program for toddlers, students, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers."
Try the same news story at these levels:
Free School Meals - Level 0, Free School Meals - Level 1 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
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