TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Indonesian National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has placed a moratorium on the opening of new free nutritious meal (MBG) kitchens after its head Dadan Hindayana along with two deputies, Sony Sanjaya and Loedwyk Pusung, were detained by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) on June 3, 2026.
Dadan has been replaced by another deputy, Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, as the head of BGN. One of Nanik’s main steps after taking office is to place a moratorium on the construction of new kitchens for the free nutritious meal program.
Here are some facts about the decision on the MBG kitchen moratorium:
Budget Savings for the Program
Nanik stated that the moratorium policy on new kitchens is in line with the Ministry of Finance’s directive to streamline the program’s budget, which has been adjusted from Rp335 trillion to Rp268 trillion.
Nanik explained that with the moratorium, BGN will no longer open new kitchen construction or nutrition fulfillment service units (SPPG). The agency’s focus is now shifted to improving existing kitchens to meet operational standards, including enhancing food quality and human resource training.
“To produce quality food, including improvement and training of human resources. This means that if the kitchen does not meet the standards, we will definitely suspend it,” Nanik said in a press conference in Central Jakarta on Thursday, June 4, 2026.
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She stated that there are currently around 27,000 operational MBG kitchens. However, there are still many requests for the construction of new kitchens coming in every day. According to her, this condition can make supervision difficult if not controlled. “So we will straighten this out first,” she said.
Six Kitchens in One District
Nanik said that they will evaluate the need for kitchens in each area. She stated that one consideration for the moratorium is because the number of existing and operational kitchens is already sufficient, especially in urban and agglomeration areas.
“We will straighten this out first. For example, in one district, six kitchens are enough. Done, just six,” said Nanik.
She explained that the moratorium is being carried out so that BGN can re-calculate the ideal kitchen needs in each district and regency based on the number of beneficiaries. After the reorganization is completed, the government will decide whether to reopen the registration for new kitchens. “If after we see that it’s not enough, then we will reopen the registration. So we’ll straighten this out first,” she said.
Focus on Building Kitchens in 3T Areas
Nanik stated that currently, the construction and requests for MBG kitchens are more concentrated in agglomeration areas. Meanwhile, underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions have not been optimally served. “Honestly, now the accumulation is in agglomeration areas. The 3T areas have not been touched,” Nanik said.
According to Nanik, President Prabowo Subianto has instructed to pay attention to and prioritize 3T areas first.
The moratorium on new MBG kitchen construction is part of the consolidation agenda of the new BGN leadership appointed by President Prabowo. In the first coordination meeting, the BGN leadership set budget efficiency as the main focus.
Nanik explained that her agency will reorganize the beneficiaries, temporarily stop opening new kitchens, improve operational kitchens, and formulate the implementation scheme for MBG in 3T areas so that they are not fully dependent on the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN).
Currently, BGN budget is estimated to be around Rp26.8 trillion after the government’s budget cuts. However, Nanik stated that they are still trying to find further efficiency without reducing the program’s targets.
“The first thing we do is to achieve budget efficiency. Although it has been cut to Rp26.8 trillion now, we hope we can still reduce it further, but without reducing the targets,” she said.
For 3T areas, BGN is preparing several alternative sources of funding besides the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN). These include through corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs of state-owned or private companies, grants from international organizations, and the utilization of existing kitchen facilities in the region. “The point is to reduce the burden on the APBN budget which used to fully fund 100%,” Nanik said.
Will Use School Canteens
In addition to focusing on 3T regions, Nanik S. Deyang also sees the possibility of using school canteens, public kitchens, and existing kitchen facilities in remote areas. According to Nanik, the number of beneficiaries in some 3T regions is relatively small so that the construction of new kitchens does not always become an efficient choice.
Nanik also indicated that the target of 82.9 million MBG beneficiaries this year is no longer the main priority. According to her, the government will prioritize service quality and target accuracy rather than pursuing coverage numbers. “We have informed the President that this year, we will not pursue quantity. We will improve quality,” Nanik said.
Dinda Shabrina contributed to the writing of this article.
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