Free school meals under scrutiny after 500 students fall ill

Meal crisis: Students resting while receiving treatment for food poisoning at the regional general hospital after eating free school meals sponsored by the government in Sidoarjo, East Java province. — Reuters

More than 500 students in East Java were hospitalised with food poisoning suspected to have been caused by state-supplied meals, regional officials said, as the government works to reform the agency overseeing its ambitious free-meals scheme.

President Prabowo Subianto launched his multibillion-dollar programme last year to eradicate undernutrition by giving free meals to tens of millions of child­ren, but the scheme has suffered from controversies such as food poisoning, corruption allegations, leadership changes and a burdensome price tag.

In East Java’s Sidoarjo region, more than 500 students fell ill on Tuesday, East Java deputy governor Emil Dardak told news channel Kompas TV.

He said the National Nutrition Agency, which oversees the free-meals programme, was looking into whether the cause was the lunch the students had eaten.

Subandi, head of the local government in Sidoarjo, said most of the 516 students treated at the hospital have been discharged.

Subandi, who goes by one name, said police had taken samples from the meals as part of the investigation.

There have been cases of mass food poisoning linked to the scheme.

Non-governmental watchdog Network for Education Watch said that as of Aug 8, there had been some 37,600 cases of food poisoning linked to the program­me.

Improper food storage and late delivery of cooked meals are often to blame for the food poisoning, authorities have said.

The poisoning comes as the new head of the National Nutri­tion Agency has vowed to reform the programme.

It has shut down hundreds of kitchens for reasons including violations of quality standards.

The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the mass illness in Sidoarjo.

The agency has been through a number of recent changes in lea­dership, including one forced by the arrest of its then head in June on corruption allegations, and the government has reduced the scope of the scheme.

Investors have been concerned about the programme’s cost, lea­ding to a larger national fiscal deficit.

In July, a survey by pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Con­sulting showed only one-third of people were satisfied with the scheme, with the reported cases of poisoning cited as a major ­reason. — Reuters