BGN Proposes Rp240 Trillion Budget for MBG Program in 2027

Indonesia’s Free Meal Program Faces a Rp240 Trillion Price Tag for 2027

Tempatdonasi.com – The scale of Indonesia’s national feeding initiative is set to expand dramatically next year. The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has put forward a budget proposal of Rp240.20 trillion to deliver Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) to more than 72 million beneficiaries across the archipelago in fiscal year 2027. The figure, which dwarfs most line-item allocations in the national budget, represents the largest single-program expenditure the agency has ever requested and signals how deeply the government intends to embed school-feeding and maternal-child nutrition into its social-policy architecture.

Who Gets Fed, and How Many

Under the proposal, 72,464,886 individuals would receive meals or nutrition support. The overwhelming majority — 60,599,777 — are students spanning early childhood education, kindergartens, elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, special-needs schools, and Quranic schools, along with teachers and education personnel. The remaining 11,865,109 recipients fall under what the agency designates as “group 3B”: pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers under five.

The targeted headcount exceeds the 64.94 million people embedded as a goal in the 2027 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), meaning the program would outpace the original planning benchmark by roughly seven and a half million beneficiaries.

Where the Money Goes

The Rp240.20 trillion envelope splits into two program lines. The first, the national nutrition fulfillment program, commands Rp232.88 trillion — 96.95 percent of the total. Within that line, Rp198.96 trillion is earmarked specifically for preparing and distributing MBG meals to students, teachers, and education staff, while Rp33.54 trillion covers distribution to group 3B recipients. A further Rp373.3 billion (0.13 percent) funds non-MBG technical activities such as kitchen standardization, training of food servers, supply-chain hardening, and quality-and-food-safety monitoring across all provinces.

The second program line, management support, accounts for Rp7.33 trillion (3.05 percent). It breaks down into employee salaries and allowances at Rp7.08 trillion, office operations and maintenance at Rp81.7 billion, and non-operational management support at Rp160 billion — the latter covering regulation development, legal assistance, public relations, organizational performance management, human-resource administration, financial management, and household administrative and protocol affairs.

A Rp30 Trillion Trim from the Original Target

The Rp240 trillion figure is not the number the government originally floated. In May 2026, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development Planning Agency set an initial indicative target of Rp270 trillion. By the time the Joint Budget Allocation Letter was finalized on August 9, 2026, that ceiling had been pulled back by Rp30 trillion. The reduction stemmed from efficiency gains in the government-aid components of the MBG budget, which were revised downward from Rp265.5 trillion to Rp232.5 trillion.

The Political Process

BGN Head Sudaryono, a former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, presented the proposal during a working meeting in the DPR Commission IX chamber in Jakarta on Thursday, September 3, 2026. Commission IX, which oversees social affairs and education, serves as the agency’s parliamentary working partner and must sign off on the budget before it enters the broader legislative calendar.

“The target beneficiaries of the MBG in 2027 with a budget of Rp240.20 trillion, including the conversion into meals and management support, are 72,464,886 people.”

Sudaryono emphasized that more than 97 percent of the budget converts directly into meals served to beneficiaries, both student and non-student.

“The majority of our large budget composition, more than 97 percent, is indeed used and converted into MBG meals served to beneficiaries, both students and non-student beneficiaries such as 3B.”

He also noted that the Rp232 trillion nutrition-fulfillment allocation encompasses information-system management, educational promotion, partnership cooperation, community empowerment, monitoring, supervision, and governance-strengthening activities beyond the physical act of serving food.

“We kindly request the Chairperson and Members of the DPR Commission IX to approve the work plan and budget of the National Nutrition Agency for 2027 amounting to Rp240.20 trillion, so that the MBG program can continue to serve all the nation’s children optimally in 2027.”

Open Questions and Ongoing Debate

As of the time of reporting, the deliberation between BGN and Commission IX remained in progress, and no vote had been taken on the proposed allocation. The question of whether the Rp240 trillion figure will survive intact through committee markup, plenary debate, and the final budget law remains unresolved.

The proposal arrives amid heightened scrutiny of food-safety incidents tied to the program. Earlier in 2026, 512 students in East Java were hospitalized after a suspected MBG food-poisoning episode, underscoring the operational risks that accompany feeding tens of millions of children simultaneously. Any approval by the legislature will likely come with conditions on monitoring frequency, supplier accountability, and provincial-level quality audits.

For context, the MBG program represents one of the most ambitious school-feeding and maternal-nutrition initiatives in Southeast Asia. At full scale, the 2027 budget would exceed the annual defense spending of many mid-sized nations and rival the total health budgets of several ASEAN neighbors, reflecting the political priority the current administration has placed on child nutrition as a long-term human-capital investment.