Jakarta to Involve School Canteens, MSMEs in New Free Breakfast Program

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of Pramono Anung and Rano Karno's transition team, Ima Mahdiah, said the provincial government will commission school canteen vendors and micro, small, and medium enterprises () for its free breakfast program. 

“That’s the governor-elect and deputy governor-elect’s directive,” said Ima on Friday, January 24, 2025.

To ensure the school canteens and MSMEs pass clinical trials and are feasible to serve schoolchildren, Ima said the Jakarta Health Office will conduct inspections.

“Out of around 3,000 kitchens, only 2,600 are ready for the Health Office’s clinical trials,” she said. Both school canteens and MSMEs vendors will be undergoing health inspections to ensure the free breakfast program could begin in the first hundred days of the new Jakarta government. 

“The program will be conducted in stages, we will first pursue the feasibility of the kitchens,” she explained. 

Ima added that the program will enter the trial stage within the next few weeks or months. 

Previously, Ima said that the involvement of canteens and MSMEs in the free breakfast program is based on the evaluation of the nationwide free nutritious meal program. School canteen merchants, she said, often gripe about the lack of customers after the program was implemented. 

“Children used to eat lunch at the school canteen, but that’s no longer the case. Pak Pram (Pramono Anung) and Pak Rano (Rano Karno) do not wish for their businesses to fold,” Ima said during an interview with Tempo at the Jakarta Provincial DPRD Office last week. 

On a separate occasion, Acting Head of the Jakarta Provincial Education Office Sarjoko said the free breakfast program is targeted to start running in 2025. Thus, the Jakarta Provincial Government and the transition team are preparing a funding scheme for this program through Jakarta’s regional budget.

Oyuk Ivani S and Hammam Izzuddin contributed to the writing of this article.

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