00:00Morning tea time in Jakarta, and kids at this school canteen are loading up on sugar and
00:08sweets.
00:09But then the food truck arrives, one meal each, in a nationwide effort to tackle malnutrition.
00:17It's pretty amazing what you can get here for just $1.
00:20These meals have beef, vegetable, rice and a piece of fruit.
00:27Delicious, they say.
00:31Parents and children are really happy they now have these nutritious meals.
00:37Usually they only buy chicken porridge or instant noodles from the canteen.
00:42The new president, Prabowo Subianto, introduced the meals to reduce the high rate of growth
00:49stunting.
00:50More than one in five Indonesian kids show the physical and cognitive effects of not
00:55eating enough protein and nutrients.
00:57But the $1 cost per meal adds up to $7 billion this year from the government budget.
01:04And that's only going to grow as the meals are eventually rolled out to 83 million schoolchildren
01:10as well as pregnant mothers.
01:12The plan is not really good enough as usual.
01:16This is a political promise.
01:20Of course there is no scientific and socio-economic studies, it's very clear now.
01:26He's not alone in worrying Indonesia's budget won't stretch enough to get meals
01:31to all the kids who need them.
01:33But for now the government is mobilising kitchens and food producers to expand the program quickly
01:39in a country where a bit of extra protein goes a long way.
01:50For more UN videos visit www.un.org
Comments