750 ill after Indonesia free school lunch

At least 725 pupils and 25 teachers in Rembang, on Indonesia’s Java Island, fell ill after eating a free school lunch, their principal said Thursday.

Principal Juhartutik said students and teachers reported diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea on Thursday morning after eating the meal on Wednesday. She said kitchen staff told her the food had been prepared at 3:00 am and served at noon.

Joko Paryanto, a doctor at a local health clinic, said 18 students and teachers had to be brought in for treatment and three were still hospitalised.

The case was the second major food-poisoning incident this week linked to Indonesia’s free meal programme. More than 500 students in Sidoarjo, East Java, were taken to hospital after eating a free lunch on Tuesday. The national nutrition agency said Wednesday that at least 80 students from that incident were still hospitalised.

The programme, launched in January 2025, is one of President Prabowo Subianto’s signature policies. It aims to reach at least 82.9 million children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women, but has faced criticism over cost, mass food poisonings and corruption claims.

Ubaid Matraji, a researcher at the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network, called the repeated illnesses a “national alarm” and said the government could not treat sick children as statistics.

The programme has also been cut back as Jakarta moved to respond to the economic impact of the Middle East war. More than 20% of children in Indonesia are affected by stunting caused by severe malnutrition.