North Sumatra Governor Bobby Nasution (centre) distributing meals to displaced residents at a shelter following flash floods and landslides in Pandan in Central Tapanuli, Indonesia's North Sumatra province on Nov 30, 2025. - AFP
JAKARTA: The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has redirected almost 300 kitchens in disaster-hit North Sumatra, Aceh and West Sumatra from preparing school lunches for the government’s free nutritious meal programme to providing meals for flood evacuees.
The three provinces have suffered severe devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait and unleashed a week of torrential rain and powerful winds, triggering widespread floods and landslides.
Agency head Dadan Hindayana said the decision to redirect the kitchens, called nutrition fulfillment service units (SPPG), was made because they already have the infrastructure to efficiently provide food for residents affected by the disasters.
“These kitchens already have cooks, equipment, delivery systems and supply chains in place. That’s why, on the very first day of the disaster, they were able to immediately serve those in need,” he said on Monday (Dec 1).
He also noted that during the emergency response, the SPPG will suspend preparation of school lunches, as many schools have been closed due to the disasters. The kitchens, which normally operate five days a week, will also open on weekends to provide meals for affected residents.
Dadan added that only kitchens unaffected by the floods and landslides would be used to serve evacuees.
“There are 55 SPPG in Aceh, 55 in West Sumatra and 173 in North Sumatra that were not affected. Together, these 286 kitchens can provide meals for around 600,000 evacuees across the three provinces,” he said.
BGN spokesperson Khairul Hidayati said President Prabowo Subianto had instructed SPPG to serve as “emergency kitchens” during natural disasters.
“Several SPPG have previously provided meals for evacuees during the flooding in Bekasi, West Java, in March and the massive floods in Bali in September,” she said last week as quoted by Kompas.com.
However, she noted that not all SPPG can provide food to evacuees of the Sumatra floods on a daily basis, as operations largely depend on local conditions. Many key roads in the affected areas have been blocked, making it difficult for the kitchens to secure ingredients.
Outages of internet and electricity have further disrupted operations, while the closure of some ports has hampered the supply chain for essential goods. Many kitchens are also struggling to secure fuel for transportation.
Nihayatul Wafiroh, deputy chair of House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversees health and social security, praised the BGN’s decision, saying that redirecting SPPG units provided an efficient and timely response to the food needs of evacuees.
“This approach can also ease the logistical burden on local governments and volunteers while helping to meet the daily nutritional needs of flood victims,” she said.
She urged the BGN to prioritize food for the most vulnerable groups, including children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and the elderly, and stressed the importance of maintaining hygiene and food safety in all meals distributed to evacuees.
“Normal conditions are very different from disaster situations. I want to remind them that both the distribution process and the hygiene of the food being delivered must be carefully maintained, so as not to create new problems,” she said.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), the widespread flooding and landslides in Sumatra have affected 1.5 million people and forced around one million residents to evacuate.
As of Tuesday, the disasters had claimed 631 lives across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, with 472 people still reported missing.
Many villages remain completely isolated, with no information available on their conditions or casualty figures.
Severed transportation networks have hampered aid distribution, leaving thousands of flood and landslide survivors facing hunger as food supplies run dangerously low.
Many residents say government assistance has been extremely limited and insufficient for the thousands displaced. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
