September 5, 2026 The Government of Indonesia has been forced to close school feeding programs after 5,482 people were poisoned in 71 incidents just between July 22 and early September 2026, involving food from 62 kitchens.
The problem of food safety in the government’s Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG, “Free Nutritious Meals”) program has grown worse this past week as almost 2,000 people fell ill between Tuesday and Thursday in suspected poisonings , including more than 770 at one Central Java high school.
Cumulative illnesses linked to the Free Nutritious Meals program since its 2025 launch now exceed 50,000. Authorities are reviewing about 27,000 distribution centers and have closed more than 800 kitchens for sanitation violations.
The evidence increasingly points to multiple bacterial contaminants rather than one single infectious disease. This is a problem of bacterial food contamination associated with inadequate temperature control, prolonged holding of cooked food, contaminated water, sanitation failures and poor food handling. A March 2026 analysis in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia reviewing MBG outbreaks through the end of 2025 identified E. coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella and Staphylococcus among confirmed biological agents. At a school in Lasem, Central Java, 752 students and 25 teachers became sick. Their grilled chicken had reportedly been cooked at about 3 a.m. and eaten around noon — roughly nine hours later. A food taster reportedly noticed that some chicken had become “slimy” before distribution.
There have been no deaths reported. The illnesses appear so far to be mostly self-limited, but the scale has produced substantial hospitalization. In the early-September Sidoarjo episode, 512 students had received medical care at one point: 80 remained hospitalized, 312 had been discharged and 120 remained under observation. In the Lasem/Rembang cluster, 15 students and teachers were hospitalized among the 777 affected.
The school feeding program has been effective in encouraging attendance. Early official reporting found a 2–3% increase in student attendance in pilot areas such as Bogor Regency and South Lampung, alongside teacher reports of better classroom concentration.
A Kemendikdasmen survey of more than 1.2 million students (baseline mid-2025 vs. endline late 2025) found that schools receiving MBG saw a larger drop in “learning disruption due to hunger” than schools that had not yet received the program—about 2.4 percentage points nationally and nearly 15 points in eastern Indonesia. Teachers frequently report better focus, more questions, higher motivation, and less mid-morning lethargy. A mixed-methods study across three provinces (1,267 students) found the largest perceived gains among lower-income students: better concentration, more engagement, and less anxiety about being hungry at school.
– Contributed to Hunger Notes by Steven Hansch
