JAKARTA: Hundreds of children suffered food poisoning from school lunches in Indonesia this week, health officials have reported, in the latest outbreaks related to the national multi-billion-dollar free meals program.
Launched in January, the Free Nutritious Meals Program was a centerpiece of the election campaign that catapulted President Prabowo Subianto to power last year. With a budget of around $10 billion, it plans to serve nearly 83 million students and pregnant mothers across Indonesia by year end.
But cases of food poisoning linked to the program have been increasingly reported since it began. This week, hundreds of students fell ill after eating school lunches in the West Bandung region of West Java province, prompting the local government to declare a health emergency.
“The total number is currently at 842 people … (The most severe cases) involved seizure, severe dehydration, headaches and loss of consciousness,” Lia N. Sukandar, who heads West Bandung’s health agency, told reporters on Wednesday evening.
Scenes from the West Bandung outbreaks have been widely circulated on Indonesian social media, with footage showing ambulances coming and going and sick students in pain as they lie on fold-out beds and the floor.
