Prabowo-Gibran Commits to Free School Lunch Program if Elected in 2024 Presidential Election
Jakarta – The presidential and vice-presidential candidate pair number 2, Prabowo Subianto – Gibran Rakabuming Raka, is committed to providing free lunch for children in schools if elected in the 2024 Presidential Election.
Through this flagship program, Prabowo-Gibran hopes to fulfill the nutrition needs of Indonesian children, improve the quality of human resources, and stimulate the national economy to promote welfare.
Spokesperson for the Prabowo-Gibran National Campaign Team, Hamdan Hamedan, said that according to the “State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022” report from the World Food Programme (WFP), the free school lunch program has helped more than 418 million students globally, at least in 76 countries.
“This program has promoted welfare in 76 countries by creating around 4 million jobs. Indonesia also has great potential for improvement,” said Hamdan to reporters on Thursday.
He said that a 2017 WFP study revealed that free school lunch can increase education participation and quality, especially for girls.
“This program is a strategic step to reduce poverty and economic inequality.”
Basically, the free school lunch program has been implemented in Indonesia since 1997. “In the context of Islamic boarding schools, for example, programs like this have been implemented for decades, even hundreds of years by Islamic leaders,” Hamdan continued.
During the period 1997-2000, the Ministry of Education and Culture implemented the ‘Provision of Supplementary Food for School Children’ program, reaching 2.3 million students outside of Java and Bali.
Between 2005-2010, WFP implemented the WFP School Feeding (Fortified Biscuit) program benefiting around 800,000 students in NTT, NTB, North Sumatra, South Sulawesi, Aceh, and the Jabodetabek area.
“WFP has shown that every dollar invested in this program can have an economic impact up to 9 times,” he said.
“That does not include the potential creation of 1.8 million jobs in Indonesia, a figure that cannot be ignored,” Hamdan explained.
With several facts revealing the excellence of the free school lunch program, Hamdan is optimistic that the program can open doors for Indonesian children towards a brighter future and create new job opportunities.
Previously, in early December 2023, Prabowo mentioned that the provision of free school lunch program is one of the programs suggested by the United Nations (UN).
“The UN stated that this program is the right step to reduce poverty, eliminate malnutrition, and stunting. This will bring a nation to rise and become a strong nation,” said Prabowo.
Source link: https://prabowosubianto.com/tkn-program-makan-siang-gratis-dorong-kesejahteraan-di-76-negara-ciptakan-4-juta-pekerjaan/
