October 14, 2025 | 09:00 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Over dinner with executives from the Rockefeller Foundation, Prabowo Subianto served steak and an assortment of vegetables. The President was joined by Rosan Perkasa Roeslani, Chief Executive Officer of the Daya Anagata Nusantara (Danantara) Investment Management Agency, and Dadan Hindayana, Chair of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), during the more than three-hour meeting held at Prabowo’s private residence in Hambalang, Bogor, West Java, on Friday evening, October 10, 2025.
Prabowo’s guests from Canada wanted to learn how Indonesia manages its free nutritious meal (MBG) program. Dadan said the Rockefeller Foundation’s executives were curious because other countries, like Finland and Brazil, had taken years to establish similar programs in schools. “They want to learn about our partnership model in providing nutritious meals,” said Dadan, who spoke with Tempo at the Alana Hotel in Sentul, Bogor, after leaving the dinner.
Beyond discussing the achievements of the free lunch program, Prabowo and his guests also talked about the challenges of the project, which consumes a budget of Rp99 trillion (about US$6 billion). According to Dadan, the United States-based nonprofit organization understood the problems in distribution, food poisoning, and menu feasibility during the program’s first year. “They appreciate what we’re doing,” he said.
The free meal program’s troubles did not just come up at Prabowo’s meeting with the Rockefeller Foundation. Reports of mass poisoning from the President’s signature program have continued to surface over the past month. The Ministry of Health recorded that more than 11,000 beneficiaries have fallen ill since the nutritious meal program began in January 2025.
Two people close to Prabowo said the Gerindra Party General Chair was furious over the messy rollout. He called an impromptu meeting at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta shortly after returning from visits to the US, Canada, and the Netherlands, on Saturday afternoon, September 27.
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