Indonesia to run thousands of kitchens as free meals initiative starts in January

Indonesia will open thousands of kitchens across the country next year as the incoming government led by president-elect Prabowo Subianto kicks off his multi-billion dollar free meals programme, the head of the agency running the initiative said on Tuesday.

Prabowo will be sworn in as Indonesia's next president on Oct. 20. In the first stage of his plan, meals will be given to around 20 million students from January at a cost of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.54 billion).

When running at full scale, the free meals programme, which aims to end malnutrition in the country, will reach 83 million recipients, including pregnant mothers, and cost around $28 billion annually.

Dadan Hindayana, the head of the national nutrition agency, told an investment forum that at least 5,000 kitchens, called 'service units', will be set up next year, before ramping up to 30,000 units in 2027.

"The unit will not only operate as a kitchen but also have a role as a buyer for local agriculture products," Dadan said, adding the units will create over one million new jobs.

The estimated demand for food under this programme next year is at 312,000 metric tonnes of rice, 546,000 metric tonnes of chicken meat or 4.68 billions eggs, 936 million litres of milk and 546,000 metric tonnes of vegetables, according to Reuters calculation based on the agency's data and accounting for six days a week.

Dadan said one kitchen, which would serve 3,000 children, would have a daily consumption of 200 kg of rice, 350 kg of chicken meat or 3,000 eggs, 600 litres of milk and 350 kg vegetables.

The nutrition agency will prioritise sourcing the food from local farmers and also will adjust the menus based on availability, Dadan said.

($1 = 15,650.0000 rupiah)