Prabowo-Gibran Promise Free Lunch for School Kids in Pilpres 2024
Jakarta – Presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair number 2, Prabowo Subianto – Gibran Rakabuming Raka, have committed to providing free lunch for children in schools if elected in the 2024 Presidential Election.
Through this flagship program, Prabowo-Gibran hopes to fulfill the nutritional needs of Indonesian children, improve the quality of human resources, boost the national economy, and promote welfare.
The spokesperson for the National Campaign Team Prabowo-Gibran, Hamdan Hamedan, said that according to the “State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022” report from the World Food Programme (WFP), the free school lunch program has helped more than 418 million students globally, at least in 76 countries.
“This program has promoted welfare in 76 countries by creating about 4 million jobs. There is also a great opportunity for improvement in Indonesia,” said Hamdan to reporters on Thursday.
He said that the WFP study in 2017 revealed that free school lunches can increase participation and the quality of education, especially for girls.
“This program is a strategic step to reduce poverty and economic inequality.”
Basically, the free school lunch program has been implemented in Indonesia since 1997. “In the context of pesantren, for example, programs like this have been running for decades, even hundreds of years by the kiai/nyai,” added Hamdan.
In the period from 1997-2000, the Ministry of Education and Culture implemented the ‘Provision of Additional Meals for School Children’ program and reached 2.3 million students outside of Java and Bali.
From 2005-2010, WFP implemented the WFP School Feeding (Fortified Biscuit) program benefiting around 800,000 students in NTT, NTB, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, Aceh, and Jabodetabek.
“WFP has shown that every dollar invested in this program can have an economic impact up to 9 times,” he said.
“That doesn’t include the potential creation of 1.8 million jobs in Indonesia, a figure that cannot be ignored,” explained Hamdan.
With a number of facts highlighting the advantages of the free school lunch program, Hamdan is optimistic that the program can open doors for Indonesian children to a brighter future and create new job opportunities.
Previously, in early December 2023, Prabowo mentioned that the provision of free school lunches has been one of the programs recommended by the United Nations (UN).
“The UN says this program is the right step to reduce poverty, eliminate malnutrition and stunting. This will bring a nation to rise and become strong,” said Prabowo.
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