Ervina said here on Thursday that the MBG program is expected to be able to provide healthy and safe meals for children.
Therefore, the budget allocated for this program is expected to be focused on fulfilling children's nutritional needs, not just pursuing quantity of the target.
She said this after the socialization of the Healthy Living Community Movement (Germas) in Magelang District as a response to a number of incidents that raised concerns about the management of the MBG kitchen.
The government needs to conduct spot check and comprehensive audits of the eligibility and sanitation systems of kitchens providing free nutritious meals.
"We hope this allocated budget will truly be used to provide free nutritious meals for children. The goal of this program is to provide healthy and safe meals for children," she said.
She believes that a national audit of SPPG (Nutritional Fulfillment Service Unit) kitchens needs to be carried out immediately to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
She noted that the implementation of the MBG program so far has focused more on pursuing quantitative targets, while kitchen standardization has not been fully established and standardized properly.
"We continue to pursue quantity, but the kitchen standards haven't really been established to be suitable for providing meals that are healthy and safe," she said.
She emphasized that health and food safety must be the top priority in implementing the MBG program.
The Ministry of Health also has an important role to play in ensuring that meals given to children meets health standards, she noted.
"The Ministry of Health needs to ensure children's health. We want the entire community to be healthy, especially the children who receive this meals. Therefore, the management of the food provided must also be healthy," the House member said.
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Translator: Heru Suyitno, Katriana
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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