Gibran based his argument on the fact that boarding school pupils spend most of their time in school, thereby relying on these institutions for lunch, breakfast, and dinner. This is unlike regular school students who receive breakfast and dinner meals at home.
He made the statement while reviewing a trial of the program at Muhammadiyah Boarding School, Bogor District, West Java, on Wednesday.
"Maybe the government will come up with some kind of stimulus for this kind of school. The main objective is to ensure the fulfillment of the nutritional needs of the students. Since they live in dorms here, they need monitoring and special attention," he pointed out.
During the trial, hundreds of pupils received a package of meals containing milk, rice, vegetables, fried chicken, tofu filled with eggs, and bananas.
"(Each serving is worth) Rp11 thousand (US$0.69).Today's trial is great. We will continue to oversee this program, which also aims to provide free meals to boarding schools," Gibran remarked.
Also present during the activity, Acting Head of Bogor District Bahril Bakri noted that the Bogor district government had organized a similar trial of the program at several schools.
The most recent trials took place in Public Elementary School (SDN) Pakansari 1 and Public Junior High School (SMPN) Cibungbulang 3, with financial support from a bank co-owned by the provincial governments of Banten and West Java.
A total of 665 students of SDN Pakansari 1 participated in a trial conducted on November 1-7. Meanwhile, the trial in SMPN Cibungbulang 3 was held on November 18-22, targeting 829 students.
The two trials involved the distribution of meal packages worth Rp15 thousand (US$0.94) each, necessitating nearly Rp142 million (almost US$9 thousand) of budget.
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Translator: M. FIkri, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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