Does MBG Help Reduce Indonesian Family Food Spending? Here's the Survey

The Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) conducted a survey regarding the effectiveness of the Indonesia's Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) program in reducing family food expenditure.

The results showed that 37.67% of respondents felt somewhat helped by the program, and 18.13% felt very much helped.

However, 32.14% of respondents considered MBG not very helpful, and 12.06% were not helped at all.

"There is still a significant proportion of respondents who did not feel significant benefits from the MBG program in reducing family food expenditure," said Celios in its report.

Celios believes this occurred because MBG can only reduce expenditure for children's lunch. Meanwhile, families still have to provide pocket money, breakfast, dinner, and other food when children refuse the MBG menu.

"Given these conditions, the government needs to design a more sensible program that truly helps the most vulnerable groups," said Celios.

The survey also found that 64.62% of respondents stated they had to spend additional money to buy substitute food when their children disliked the MBG menu.

"The main reasons that may arise are the unappealing taste and appearance of the food, inappropriate portion sizes, and lack of menu variety," said Celios.

Celios conducted this survey on 1,868 respondents spread across rural, suburban, and urban areas, thus assumed to represent Indonesia's demographic.

Data collection was conducted online through targeted advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. Celios did not specify when the survey was conducted, but its report was published on December 15, 2025.