JAKARTA, thekabarnews.com – Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan (Zulhas) has acknowledged failures in Indonesia’s Free Meals (MBG) program. However, he insisted that the government must continue the policy and repair its management.

Zulhas made the remarks at an event concerning the distribution of Green Climate Fund payments to 10 provinces at JB Tower in Jakarta on August 12, 2026.

“We admit that MBG has failed. The budget is large, it has been almost two years, and the problems have not stopped, including the latest one,” he said.

His statement referred to problems in implementation and management. Later, he distinguished those failures from the underlying policy. He said the government would not abandon its goal of improving nutrition among low-income children.

“Faulty implementation is our responsibility. The policy is not the problem; the management is, and we are fixing it,” Zulhas added.

Zulhas asked the public to give the government one or two months to improve the program.

He said President Prabowo Subianto had appointed new leadership to oversee the reforms, referring to National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Sudaryono.

The government allocated Rp335 trillion to MBG in the 2026 state budget. This makes food safety controls and financial accountability central to the program’s credibility, according to the Finance Ministry.

Zulhas described MBG as part of the state’s constitutional responsibility toward disadvantaged citizens.

“Why must MBG be provided? Because it is a constitutional mandate. Poor families must not remain trapped in poverty because their children are malnourished,” he said.

Indonesia’s Constitution does not specifically name MBG. However, Article 28H guarantees access to health services. Article 34 also requires the state to care for people living in poverty and provide adequate health facilities.

The Constitutional Court (MK) also ruled in July that the government must eventually separate MBG spending from the constitutionally mandated education budget.

Food-safety concerns intensified after Zulhas’ August speech. In September, the National Nutrition Agency suspended an MBG kitchen in Sidoarjo for 30 days. It also removed its manager after recipients reported illnesses.

The agency said laboratory and administrative investigations had not yet determined the precise cause of that incident. BGN later said its internal evaluation linked 80–90 percent of recorded food-safety incidents to failures to follow standard procedures.

Zulhas’ statement therefore represents an admission of serious implementation failures, but not a decision to end MBG. The government now faces the task of proving that tighter supervision can protect recipients while preserving the program’s nutritional objective.