Indonesia's free meals program has been running for almost a year now - but in recent months a growing scandal has emerged - thousands of children getting sick from food poisoning. The program is reaching tens of millions of Indonesians, mostly young students. The nutrition agency, which runs the program has apologised for poisonings, and says it wants to improve as it expands rapidly.
00:00We're at a school in South Jakarta, which is one of the recipients of President Prabowo Subianto's free nutritious school meals program, one of his signature policies. It's been launched in a bid to address malnutrition and stunting in children.
00:16But let's have a look at what's on the menu today. Some of the kids have already eaten a lot of their free school meals because, of course, they're saying that it's really tasty today. You can see some ayam, some chicken, some nazi, some rice, as well as salad and vegetables.
00:31There's been a lot of controversy around this program over the last few months because of the number of children that have contracted food poisoning after eating these meals.
00:40The latest figures from an NGO is that more than 16,000 children across the country have been made ill, some of them with very, very serious food poisoning after eating meals.
00:51Even one child that becomes sick because of the program should be considered a disaster.
00:56The President, as a leader, needs to say that. He really does not understand the human rights perspective.
01:03It's prompted a major response from the President directing the Nutrition Agency to tighten up food safety standards.
01:10One case is too many for us. But this is a challenge of growth, not a challenge of neglect.
01:19This is a living system. We learn every day. We don't see this as a failure, but this is a teacher for us to strengthen our system.
01:29So, ultimately, the question is, can they make sure that they maintain safety standards as the program expands so rapidly and avoid further children from being made sick?
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