Free school food proves costly; 400 children fall ill

JAKARTA: In the worst case of mass food poisoning, more than 400 school children have fallen ill after eating free school food in Indonesia’s western Bengkulu Province.

Indonesia has been reporting mass food poisoning cases since its President Prabowo Subianto launched a flagship food programme of free food for children and pregnant women in January

However, the initiative has been marred by mass food poisoning across the archipelago, affecting hundreds of people.

Last month, 365 people fell ill from free school meals in Central Java. According to local media reports, laboratory results indicated that the outbreak was a result of poor sanitation.

Substandard wedding food lands over 200 people in the hospital

In Bengkulu, the children aged from about 4 to 12 were rushed to a local hospital complaining of stomach pain last Thursday, according to a video handout from the local government.

Authorities will launch an investigation into the cause of the illness, the province’s vice governor Mian said.

“We will temporarily suspend operations at this kitchen while we investigate where the weaknesses lie. This is the domain of the BGN (National Nutrition Agency) investigation team and the authorities,” he said.

The National Nutrition Agency, which runs the programme, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since its launch, the free school meals programme has been rapidly expanded to reach over 20 million recipients so far and authorities plan to reach 83 million recipients by year-end, budgeting a total cost of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.52 billion) this year.