An historical moment for school meals
The 6th of January 2025 marked an historical moment for school meals programmes in Asia Pacific. The ambitious Indonesian government-subsidized programme to provide free, nutritious meals to more than 60 million school-age children was officially launched. The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact has been since the very beginning a key player in supporting the programme, recognising it as an exemplary step to improve children’s nutritional status and shaping a more sustainable Indonesian food system. Such a role has been explicitly highlighted by the Indonesian Presidential Communication Office as a testimony of the long-lasting engagement of the Milan Pact with local authorities and city policy officers.
The functioning of the nutritious meals programme
The so called “Nutritious Meals Program” is recognised as a flagship initiative of the newly elected President Prabowo Subianto which has been prioritized among the eight most important priorities for the current government. The program aims to fight against malnutrition and promote healthy eating via the delivery of high-quality school meals prepared with locally sourced ingredients, with a special attention to nutrition education, and food waste reduction activities. On its opening day, the program has served over 500,000 meals. The meals are meant to be prepared in central kitchens, more specifically in the Nutrition Services Provision Centers. In this first phase around 200 kitchens run by third-party catering services, a part of which are run by military bases, have been equipped for serving meals.
The role of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact in supporting the programme
Indonesia is one of the most active countries in the MUFPP community and has shown a unique commitment over the years. Indeed, the MUFPP has closely worked with the 15 signatory cities in Indonesia to facilitate knowledge sharing among cities and global actors and to support decision-making processes with a multi-level governance approach.
In recent years, the MUFPP has specifically worked with these cities to guide them towards the implementation of school meals programmes. Thanks to the Cities Feeding the Future Initiative of the School Meals Coalition, led by the MUFPP, multiple learning opportunities have been made available for city officers and political representatives in the region.
A notable example is the Spreading Experiences and Knowledge on School Meals Programmes in ASEAN Cities project, developed jointly with ASEAN and funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In July 2024, a summer school was held in Bandung (Indonesia) to provide city officers with technical training and practical tools for the sustainable implementation of school meals programmes. Participating city officers also worked on the design of a project to be executed in their home cities for developing school meals programmes based on the most pressing needs of each specific context. A total of 13 Indonesian cities successfully participated in the summer school and related activities, testifying the determined commitment of the country on the topic.
It is worth mentioning that a large set of UN bodies including the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization have also acknowledged the pivotal role of such a programme in food system transformation towards the Sustainable Development Goals achievement and have accompanied the Indonesian government towards the programme implementation.
The way forward to strengthen efforts towards improving school meals in Indonesia
“I am very pleased to see how the work of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact in recent years has proved to be fruitful in developing new projects in Indonesian cities that look at the future, starting from food and school” highlighted Anna Scavuzzo Vice Mayor of Milan, in charge of Education and Food Policy. “The Milan Pact is strongly committed to continuing supporting the new Indonesian school meals programme and to promote sharing best practices: we want to unlock the potential of learning exchanges between national, regional and urban actors, and – through the implementation of advocacy processes – to further place school meals as a central priority for action in the region. We work in partnership with ASEAN, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to boost the role that cities can play in sustainably innovating urban food systems.“
