https://arab.news/ntjq6
- New cases come amid calls for program’s suspension
- President targets free meals for 83 million in signature program
Bandung, INDONESIA: More than 1,000 children in Indonesia’s West Java have suffered food poisoning this week from school lunches, authorities said, the latest in a series of outbreaks and another setback for the president’s multi-billion-dollar free meals program.
The mass poisoning was reported in four areas of West Java province, its Governor Dedi Mulyadi told Reuters on Thursday, which came as non-governmental organizations issued calls to suspend the program due to health concerns.
The latest cases follow the poisoning of 800 students who ate school lunches last week in West Java and Central Sulawesi provinces, supplied under President Prabowo Subianto’s signature free nutritious meals program.
Questions have been raised about standards and oversight of the scheme, which has expanded rapidly to reach over 20 million recipients, with an ambitious goal of feeding 83 million by year-end.
The program’s 171 trillion rupiah ($10.2 billion) budget will double next year.
Governor Mulyadi said more than 470 students fell sick in West Bandung on Monday after eating the free lunches, and three more outbreaks took place there on Wednesday and in the Sukabumi region, affecting at least 580 children.
“We must evaluate those running the program... And the most important thing is how to deal with the students’ trauma after eating the food,” Mulyadi said, adding small hospitals in West Bandung were overwhelmed by sick students.
Prabowo’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest cases. Dadan Hindayana, head of The National Nutrition Agency that oversees the free meals program, said kitchens with poisoning cases had been suspended.
Surge in cases
Lisa Bila Zahara, 15, said she fell ill after eating a school lunch of chicken and tofu cooked with soy sauce on Wednesday.
“Around 30 minutes later, I felt nauseous and had a headache,” the high school student told Reuters at a sports hall turned into a makeshift treatment center in West Bandung.
“I want it stopped (the program) ... I fear this will happen again,” she said.
Zahara’s mother forbade her from consuming the free meals in future.
Before this week’s incident, at least 6,452 children nationwide had suffered from food poisoning from the program since it was launched in January, according to think tank Network for Education Watch.
Governor Mulyadi said kitchens were tasked with feeding too many students and were located far from the schools, forcing them to start cooking very early, sometimes the night before the lunch.
“When the food was still warm, it was immediately put on the tray and the tray was closed, making it spoiled,” he said, adding that authorities had declared a health emergency.
Iqbal Maulana, the head of a kitchen that had provided some of the free meals, said: “We do it according to the standard operating procedure.”