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

JAKARTA — Indonesia will open thousands of kitchens in 2025 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 Oct 8.

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 (S$5.9 billion).

When running at full scale, the free meals programme, which aims to end malnutrition in Indonesia, will reach 83 million recipients, including pregnant mothers, and cost around US$28 billion (S$36 billion) annually.

Dadan Hindayana, head of the national nutrition agency, told an investment forum that at least 5,000 kitchens, called "service units", will be set up in 2025, 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 a million new jobs.

The estimated demand for food under this programme is at 312,000 metric tonnes of rice, 546,000 metric tonnes of chicken meat or 4.68 billion 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 200kg of rice, 350kg of chicken meat or 3,000 eggs, 600 litres of milk and 350kg vegetables.

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

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