Prabowo Claims MBG is Studied by White House Experts

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto stated that the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program run by the Indonesian government is now being studied by international experts, including from the White House in the United States, because it is considered a strategic social and economic investment.

In a follow-up briefing on the agenda of the 2026 National Coordination Meeting of the Central and Regional Governments in Bogor, the Head of State said that MBG is part of a major effort to realize food and energy self-sufficiency and at the same time change the flow of the economy so that it rotates more from the village, not sucked into the city or abroad.

"We have to change the flow of money from the village to the city and abroad. We have to stop, among others, with MBG," he said, quoted by ANTARA, Monday, February 2.

He said that to date, the MBG program has reached approximately 60 million beneficiaries in a period of one year.

This achievement, according to him, surpassed various pessimistic predictions that doubted Indonesia's ability to carry out large-scale programs without serious problems.

"Many great people predict (MBG, ed) that it will fail, thousands of poisonings. We eat in Jakarta restaurants alone there is poisoning, if we add up how many billions of food we have distributed? The statistics are 0.008 or 7 percent, what does that mean? It means that 99.99 percent of MBG's business must be declared successful," he said.

According to Prabowo, this success also attracted the attention of international institutions and experts.

He said experts from the White House were studying the implementation of MBG in Indonesia, while a few months earlier the Rockefeller Institute also assessed MBG as the best investment a country could make.

"One rupiah that we spend for MBG returns at least five times," he said.

The President also highlighted the real economic impact of the program. To date, 22,275 Satuan Pelayanan Pemenuhan Gizi (SPPG) kitchens have been operational, with an additional 13,829 kitchens in the submission process.

"Every kitchen involves local food suppliers, from vegetables, fish, chicken to meat, which absorb labor at the village level," the President added.

If the coverage of MBG reaches the target of 82 million beneficiaries by December 2026, he said, this program has the potential to create around 3 to 5 million jobs.

The President said that MBG alone has generated around one million jobs.