JAKARTA - The Free Nutritional Meal (MBG) program is again a controversy. The National Nutrition Agency (MBG) confirmed that this program will continue during the school holidays until January 2026.
The end-of-year school holidays vary, but generally, teaching and learning activities stop from December 22, 2025 to January 3, 2026. During this holiday, the government insists that the distribution of MBG continues.
The distribution of MBG during school holidays is contained in the Guidelines for the Management of the MBG Program during School Holidays which was determined through the Decree of the Head of BGN Number 52.1 of 2025.
In the guidelines, it is stipulated that the MBG package during school holidays consists of one ready-to-eat package and two long-lasting packaging packages, so that students still get balanced nutrition even though they are not present at school for several days.
However, the provision of MBG during school holidays has sparked controversy. Moreover, this is done in the midst of ecological disasters in North Sumatra, West Sumatra, and Aceh. The public urges the government to divert MBG funds, at least during school holidays, to deal with flood victims in Sumatra.
Since it was first launched in January, the MBG program has often sparked heated discussions among the public. Starting from the very large budget, to the many cases of alleged food poisoning of MBG when the program was running.
Now, the public is also wondering, what makes the government so determined to keep the flagship program of President Prabowo Subianto running during the school holidays?
Director of Economics Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) Nailul Huda said that people's tax money was not used properly and correctly when the MBG program was still running during the school holidays.
According to Huda's records, there are 17,555 Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG) that have been running until December 2025. With each SPPG providing 3,000 servings per day, there are 526.65 million servings provided during the holidays.
"With an average price of Rp. 15,000 per portion, there is Rp. 7.9 trillion of people's money that is used," said Huda in a statement received by VOI.
According to Huda, it would be wiser if the government postponed the MBG program and transferred it to people in Aceh, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra who were in distress.
Until now, the government has insisted on not declaring an ecological disaster in Sumatra as a national disaster. In fact, according to the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), the death toll reached more than 1,000. This disaster also resulted in thousands of people being displaced due to flash floods and landslides causing thousands of homes to be severely damaged.
Seeing the government's attitude, which was considered to be stunned by the disaster, Huda suspected that "something beyond the common sense of the government was playing". This suspicion leads to the existence of certain parties who are reluctant to lose financial profits if this program is temporarily stopped.
Huda noted that the potential profit per kitchen reached 13.33 percent (about Rp2,000 from Rp15,000). Thus, there will be Rp1 trillion in the SPPG entrepreneur's pocket.
"Do you know who has SPPG? Yes, the government's cronies," he said.
Nutritional Needs Not MetBGN conveyed that one of the options for distributing MBG during school holidays is the package mechanism. In this mechanism, the MBG allowance for six days will be distributed twice a week. The food menu received by students is a combination of ready-to-eat dishes with packaged food, such as bread, eggs, milk, and fruit.
That means, when MBG is replaced with a packaged product, the nutritional fulfillment of school children should be questioned. In fact, from the beginning one of the objectives of this program is for children to get various types of food, ranging from vegetables, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and others.
The distribution of MBG which combines ready-to-eat food and packaged food is also in the spotlight. In addition to being considered not to meet the nutritional needs of children, this concept is also deviating from the purpose of MBG, which among others empowers MSMEs and the grassroots economy, and encourages economic growth.
Instead of encouraging economic growth, the provision of packaged food such as biscuits, bread, and packaged milk only benefits conglomerates. As a result, Rp7.9 trillion will go more into conglomerates, not into vegetable traders in the market or vegetable farmers in the area.
"Who enjoys it is the big people who sit in their luxurious chairs in a magnificent house. Is that the purpose of MBG when on vacation? To enrich the conglomerates whose wealth can be 1,000 times that of office workers with a UMR salary?" said Huda.
In the end, Huda encouraged the government to evaluate the provision of Free Nutritious Meals during school holidays.
"There are areas that need more of this fund now, rather than the conglomerate's wallet that is already full," Huda concluded.
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