National Nutrition Agency


The National Nutrition Agency, is a cabinet-level agency formed by President Joko Widodo to initiate Prabowo Subianto's free lunch for students and provide nutritional adequacy for 4 vulnerable groups: students, toddlers, pregnant women, and lactating women. 82.9 million people of total Indonesian population will be targeted as beneficiary of this program.
This agency is realization of Prabowo's campaign for providing free, nutritious food.
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History

During his campaign, Prabowo promised that he will provide lunches for students.
As the seed of the agency, a deputy of the National Food Agency, Deputy II taken out from the agency and transformed into the agency. Due to this, National Nutrition Agency shared same office with National Food Agency during its formation period.
On 15 August 2024, Joko Widodo signed formation of two of Prabowo's future cabinet-level agencies. National Nutrition Agency is one of the agencies. The National Nutrition Agency formed to facilitate and fulfill Prabowo's mission.
Despite being formed to fulfill Prabowo's free lunch program, Joko Widodo expected that in the future the agency not only take role as facilitator of free lunch program only, but also promoting and cultivating healthy lifestyle in Indonesia.
In October 2024, Dadan Hindayana, Head of the National Nutrition Agency, announced that the Indonesian government plans to allocate up to Rp 800 billion per day for a free meals program to feed children across the country. This initiative is part of a broader effort to address child nutrition and improve food security nationwide.

Funding

IDR 71 trillions had been allocated in 2025, when the agency fully functioned to execute the program. Sri Mulyani, Minister of Finance, revealed that IDR 71 trillions used to fund the program is already allocated and will not take funds previously allocated for education affairs.

Structure

Based on the Presidential Decree No. 83/2024, the agency consisted of:
  • Office of Steering Committee of the National Nutrition Agency
  • * Office of Chairman of Steering Committee of the National Nutrition Agency
  • * Office of Vice Chairman of Steering Committee of the National Nutrition Agency
  • * Steering Committees
  • Executives
  • * Office of Chief of the National Nutrition Agency
  • * Office of Deputy Chief of the National Nutrition Agency
  • * Office of Main Secretariat of the National Nutrition Agency
  • ** Bureau of Performance Management
  • ** Bureau of General Affairs and Finance
  • ** Bureau of Human Resources and Organization
  • ** Bureau of Legal Affairs and Public Relations
  • ** Bureau of State Properties Management and Services
  • * Deputy I
  • ** Deputy I Secretariat
  • ** Directorate of Nutrition Fulfillment System
  • ** Directorate of Nutrition Fulfillment Management and Administration
  • ** Directorate of Nutrition Fulfillment Risk Management
  • * Deputy II
  • ** Deputy II Secretariat
  • ** Directorate of Supply and Distribution I
  • ** Directorate of Supply and Distribution II
  • ** Directorate of Supply and Distribution III
  • * Deputy III
  • ** Deputy III Secretariat
  • ** Directorate of Nutrition Promotion and Education
  • ** Directorate of Cooperation and Partnership
  • ** Directorate of Social Empowerment and Community Participation
  • * Deputy IV
  • ** Deputy IV Secretariat
  • ** Directorate of Monitoring and Supervision I
  • ** Directorate of Monitoring and Supervision II
  • ** Directorate of Monitoring and Supervision III
  • * Inspectorate
  • ** Main Inspectorate
  • ** Inspectorate I
  • ** Inspectorate II
  • ** Inspectorate III
  • * Centers
  • ** Center for Data, Information, and Technology
  • * Technical Implementation Units
Around 100 Technical Implementation Units will be formed as servicing units under the agency.

Food poisonings

Since the launch of the free meals program on 6 January 2025, repeated cases of mass food poisoning have been reported nationwide. The first occurred on 16 January in Sukoharjo when ten students fell ill, followed by similar incidents across multiple provinces. By late September, 6,452 children had been affected nationwide, and the National Nutrition Agency noted 4,711 suspected cases out of one billion portions served. A later report recorded 16,109 affected pupils as of 31 October.
The Ministry of Health attributed the incidents to bacterial and viral contamination, linked to poor kitchen sanitation. NGOs urged the government to suspend the ten-billion-dollar program, calling the outbreaks a "systematic failure".
Government responses varied. West Java suspended the program in several areas after hundreds of students fell ill. President Prabowo Subianto defended the initiative, later acknowledging flaws and citing a 0.0007 percent incident rate. A 13-ministry coordination team was later formed for daily monitoring.
Lawmakers also commented on the issue, stating that difficulties were expected in a program of this scale.