Containers of free meals are prepared for delivery in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia in March.
Photographer: Muhammad Fadli/BloombergHanding Out $15 Billion of Free Meals Strains Indonesia's Budget
The country's complimentary food program has rapidly become one of the largest of its kind, but there’s little sign yet it will be an economic gamechanger.
At a small, blue-and-white building in Indonesia's southernmost province, pots and pans start clanging before dawn.
Almost every day, workers at this kitchen prepare about 2,500 meals for local schools and community health hubs. The coastal Timor village is closer to Australia than Jakarta, one speck in a vast program that President Prabowo Subianto wants enacted at breakneck speed to provide free meals to every child across the thousands of islands that comprise Indonesia — regardless of whether they want or need it.
“The work goes on continuously, day after day,” said Yufrianti Hautias, 24, a former teacher who now oversees the kitchen in Toineke. “As one team finishes, the next takes over.”