Jakarta. The government does not plan on importing food to fulfill President Prabowo Subianto’s campaign promise of feeding all Indonesian school kids free lunches, according to Cooperative Minister Budi Arie Setiadi.

The government is just a few months away before it officially launches the free school meal program in January. Prabowo’s cabinet has also made preparations -- ranging from countless meetings to distribution inspections -- to make sure that the program can run without a hitch once it officially starts. Preparing nutritious meals for countless students would require a huge budget, and also a lot of ingredients. However, the government intends to entirely use domestically produced ingredients to prepare the meals.

“This program involves multiple resources, be it the supply of milk, eggs, meat, vegetables, and so on. That is why we have to do this together. … It is our commitment to not let any imported component [in the school meal program,” Budi told the press in Jakarta on Tuesday.

To cut imports, the government intends to involve cooperatives in carrying out this mammoth task. Cooperatives typically refer to businesses owned and run by their members who jointly share the benefits. The government data shows that Indonesia has 130,119 cooperatives in operations as of 2023. Budi said that these businesses would help supply the ingredients needed to prepare the meal, and also make the lunches. 

“We will also have some of these cooperatives deliver the lunches to the schools,” Budi said.

He added: “It would be best if we use the eggs, potatoes, carrots, veggies produced by our people, particularly those in the rural areas. So if possible, we should have no imports in this program.”

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