Head of BGN Claims MBG Success Makes Students More Active, Strong Body, Rarely Sick

JAKARTA - Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), Dadan Hindayana, said the impact of Free Nutrition Meals (MBG) began to be felt in areas where students are more active in learning and can be active with a healthier body.

"With MBG, children are always excited to go to school. In the regions, they seem to be more active in learning and when they are active, their bodies look stronger and rarely get sick," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, January 20.

Dadan said MBG had reached approximately 58 million beneficiaries, ranging from pregnant women, nursing mothers, toddlers, to school-age children from PAUD-SMA.

However, Dadan emphasized the importance of parents understanding the nutritional needs of children at home as the most important form of sustainability of the MBG Program.

Because without this awareness, this program cannot achieve its main goal for the improvement of Indonesian human resources.

"Often parents see that the important thing is that the child eats and follows the child's wishes, for example, wants to eat noodles with rice, it is actually energy, but the composition is not enough to grow well. The government needs to expand education related to the public's understanding in general what children should consume when growing," he explained.

He explained that to meet balanced nutrition, composition is an important part that needs to be considered, where in one meal there must be sources of energy, protein, fat, and fiber so that the body's adequacy of nutrition (AKG) needs can be met.

"We want to do our best using the most effective budget possible, and reach from Sabang-Merauke, to one left behind. We want everyone to be covered by us, no one is left behind. We also continue to try to create a program that can be understood by the community, how they can understand this MBG program," he said.