West Java has 10 million students, DPRD asks MBG Task Force to be formed immediately

Free meal illustration (ANTARA)

BANDUNG - Deputy Chairman of the West Java Provincial DPRD, Iwan Suryawan, asked that the proposal to form a Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) Task Force (Satgas) at the regional level be immediately realized as a step to support the Healthy Canteen program which is being prepared by the National Nutrition Agency (BGN).

According to Iwan, the existence of the MBG Task Force will be an important instrument to ensure the implementation of various BGN programs, ranging from standardization of school canteens, food quality supervision, to the distribution of nutritious food to millions of students in West Java.

"The Healthy Kantin discourse from the National Nutrition Agency is the right momentum to realize the formation of the MBG Task Force in the region. The Task Force will strengthen coordination so that the program can run effectively and accurately," said Iwan, Thursday, July 2.

The Bogor City legislator explained that West Java is an area that requires a special coordination system because it has the largest number of educational units in Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Education and Culture's Dapodik, there are 50,627 schools with more than 10.1 million students who are the target of the Free Nutritious Meal program.

"West Java manages more than 10 million students. With such a scale, a special team is needed that focuses on monitoring the implementation of the program so that the entire distribution chain, quality control, to inter-agency coordination runs optimally," he said.

Iwan revealed that the proposal to form the MBG Task Force had actually been submitted since 2025 after seeing various challenges in the implementation of the program trial, especially related to logistics distribution and food supervision in the field.

According to him, if the Task Force is immediately formed, the local government will be more ready to implement the BGN policy, including plans to make school canteens as centers for providing nutritious food that meets health and food safety standards.

"The presence of the Task Force will facilitate the implementation of the BGN policy in the region while ensuring that school canteens can be transformed into healthy food providers that meet national standards," he said.

In addition to supporting supervision, the MBG Task Force is also considered to be able to coordinate coaching, training, and certification for MSMEs and school canteen managers so that they are able to meet the standards for providing nutritious food.

Iwan emphasized that efforts to address stunting and improve children's nutritional quality require an integrated system, so that coordination between the central and regional governments must be strengthened from the preparation stage.

"The challenge of meeting children's nutrition does not know the academic calendar. Therefore, the region must have a system that is ready to work whenever needed. I hope that the formation of the MBG Task Force will be realized soon so that West Java is ready to become a pilot for the success of the Free Healthy and Nutritious Meal Program nationally," he concluded.