Indonesia hails ‘99.9% successful’ free meals scheme amid food safety, oversight concerns

Indonesia’s ambitious free nutritious meals programme has fed more than 55 million people in its first year, a scale-up President Prabowo Subianto has hailed as a major step in tackling childhood malnutrition, even as critics warn that rapid expansion has come at the expense of oversight, food safety and fiscal discipline. Launched with fanfare last year, the scheme provides free meals to schoolchildren, infants and pregnant women, with the government framing it as a long-term investment in...