The free nutritious meal program, a flagship campaign promise of President-elect Prabowo Subianto, is set to begin on January 2, 2025. The program will be managed by the newly established National Nutrition Agency, led by Dadan Hindayana, who was officially appointed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to spearhead the agency earlier this week. 

Targeting pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, young children, and students from early childhood education to high school, including both general and religious schools, the program aims to reach 82.9 million recipients. The rollout will be phased, with full implementation expected by 2029.  

The National Nutrition Agency has been preparing for this nationwide program by conducting pilot trials for nearly eight months. Dadan stated, "We want to copy and paste what we have trialed on a nationwide scale," emphasizing the importance of understanding regional differences as the program is implemented uniformly across the country. 

The agency is currently focused on preparing procedures for the program, with particular attention to Islamic boarding schools, as well as pregnant and nursing mothers, and children under five. While the specifics of the budget and participant numbers remain under review, the 2025 State Budget has allocated Rp 71 trillion (roughly US$4.57 billion or approximately 0.29% of GDP) for the program's early phase.  

Dadan mentioned that the budget would not only cover the meal supply and program implementation but also the operational costs of the National Nutrition Agency, including staff salaries. The program's full scale is projected to cost over Rp 460 trillion annually. 

President Jokowi has also emphasized the importance of promoting a broader culture of healthy living as part of the initiative. This includes educating schoolchildren about the health benefits of local food resources, such as moringa leaves. "There’s a lot of untapped potential in various regions. Schoolchildren should be aware of the health benefits of moringa leaves," Dadan quoted Jokowi as saying. 

To ensure smooth execution across Indonesia, the National Nutrition Agency will establish service units in each region, modeled after the structure of Technical Implementation Units (UPT), which typically handle local policy execution. 

The program is also expected to boost Indonesia's economic growth by about 0.10% in 2025, requiring an estimated 820,000 workers for its implementation.