Over 1,000 Children Hospitalized Due to Food Poisoning from Free Lunch Program in Indonesia

Sun Oct 19 2025 20:28:26 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

A controversial free school lunch initiative in Indonesia has led to more than 1,000 children falling ill amidst widespread health concerns. As the program faces scrutiny, calls for its suspension grow stronger.

This week, over 1,000 children in Indonesia have fallen ill after consuming meals from President Prabowo Subianto's free school lunch program. Multiple cases of food poisoning have been reported since the initiative began, raising significant health concerns among authorities and non-governmental organizations. Despite the alarming reports, the government has stated there are no plans to suspend the program.

More than 1,000 children have fallen ill from free school lunches in Indonesia this week, according to authorities – the latest in a string of mass food poisoning events linked to President Prabowo Subianto's multi-billion-dollar nutritious meals programme.

Yuyun Sarihotima, head of West Java's Cipongkor Community Health Center, told BBC Indonesia that the total number of poisoning victims recorded between Monday and Wednesday had reached 1,258.

It follows the poisoning of 800 students last week in West Java and Central Sulawesi provinces.

President Prabowo has made the nutritious meals programme – which aims to offer free lunches to 80 million school children – a signature of his leadership.

But a spate of mass food poisoning incidents has led non-governmental organisations to call for authorities to suspend the programme due to health concerns.

Victims of the recent outbreaks complained of stomach aches, dizziness, nausea, and shortness of breath, which is a non-typical symptom of food poisoning.

In previous cases of food poisoning stemming from the free lunch programme negligent food preparation has been cited as a suspected cause.

This week's victims ate meals that included soy sauce chicken, fried tofu, vegetables, and fruit, but past poisoning incidents have been linked to expired sauce and, in one case, the serving of fried shark.

The head of Indonesia's National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Dadan Hindayana said that the mass food poisoning in Cipongkor last week was the result of a technical error by the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG).

Cipongkor is where the first suspected case of this week's mass poisoning occurred on Monday, with the number quickly increasing to some 475 students. On Wednesday, another mass poisoning in Cipongkor saw as many as 500 students fall ill after consuming free lunches.

The BGN reported that from January to 22 September, there were 4,711 cases of free school lunch poisoning. A higher figure was reported by the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI), which recorded that as of 21 September, the number of poisoning victims had increased to 6,452 children.

Some have called for changes to the scheme, including a proposal that funds be distributed directly to parents so they can prepare meals for their children instead. The BGN has previously rejected this idea.

Across the world, programmes offering free meals to students have proved effective in improving health, academic performance, and attendance, but Indonesia's $28bn version has become the target of food safety concerns and protests.

Although the government stands behind the initiative, experts have warned that the substantial budget poses risks for corruption, given Indonesia's history with large-scale social assistance programmes.