Fulfill Nutrition For Pregnant, Breastfeeding And Toddlers, Free Nutrition Eating Programs Are Carried Out Gradually

JAKARTA - Optimal fulfillment of nutrition for pregnant women and toddlers has an important role in supporting children's growth and development from pregnancy to early childhood.

Sufficient and balanced nutrition helps prevent the risk of stunting, malnutrition, and supports children's brain and physical development. One of the government's concrete steps in supporting this need is through the Free Nutrition Food Program (MBG), which is designed to ensure pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers get adequate nutritional intake.

The MBG program not only focuses on feeding, but also ensures that the menu provided contains important nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals that suit the needs of each beneficiary group.

The Minister of Population and Development of the Indonesian Family, Wihaji, emphasized that the implementation of the MBG Program for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers was carried out in stages to ensure the effectiveness and quality of its implementation.

"Actually, MBG has begun to be applied to pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers, but it is still running gradually," said Wihaji during a working visit in Boyolali Regency, Central Java, as quoted by ANTARA.

In the process of implementing it, the Ministry has coordinated with the Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Dadan Hindayana, to ensure the distribution and quality of MBG services runs according to standards.

"We have discussed the implementation of MBG for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers so that this program is right on target," he continued.

Wihaji explained that the MBG program provides a menu that has been designed by nutritionists to meet the specific needs of each group. Although the standard for fulfilling nutrition services (SPPG) between school children and pregnant women or toddlers is the same in terms of the principle of providing balanced nutrition, the composition and nutritional content are adjusted.

The Minister for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers is certainly different from school children. The protein and carbohydrate content is regulated according to need, and these are all supervised by nutritionists," explained Wihaji.

The MBG program for this vulnerable group will be gradually expanded to various regions, including Boyolali Regency.

Wihaji added that until now the main focus of the implementation of MBG is still on school children. However, the government has begun to expand the scope of this program so that pregnant women and toddlers can also feel the benefits.

"I went straight to the field to make sure that it was now the turn of pregnant women and toddlers to get more attention in the MBG program," he said.

He also emphasized that the implementation of programs for pregnant women and toddlers requires careful time and planning so that the implementation runs effectively and according to the target. The government targets that the coverage of this program can run optimally by the end of the year.

With this step, it is hoped that the fulfillment of nutrition of pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers will be more guaranteed, so that it can support future generations who are healthy and free from the risk of stunting and other nutritional problems.