Indonesia school meals program
Integrating blue foods from small-scale producers into school meals for improved nutrition, livelihoods, economies, and sustainability.
(Image credit: iStock)
At the request of the Indonesian Government, the Center for Ocean Solutions is collaborating with government, academic, and NGO leaders to integrate blue foods into the country's school meals program.
In 2025, President Prabowo of Indonesia announced Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG), or Free Nutritious Meals, an ambitious national school program that aims to feed more than 80 million children and mothers each day. As the fourth-most populous nation in the world, Indonesia faces significant malnutrition and poverty challenges, particularly among its youth: Over one-fifth of children suffer from impaired growth or development due to poor nutrition and other deficiencies.
President Prabowo’s government has requested that the Center for Ocean Solutions help develop the potential of blue foods to achieve the goals of the school meal program. Blue foods are rich in micronutrients essential for cognitive and physical development. To deliver on that potential, they must be sourced from sustainably managed fisheries and fish farms that provide equitable livelihoods for small-scale producers and their communities.
The program builds on recent collaborative research with Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas). From 2023-2025, the Center for Ocean Solutions helped integrate blue foods into the government’s 20-year national development plan and launched a nationwide blue food assessment.
This new collaboration has expanded to include the country’s new nutrition agency, Badan Gizi Nasional (BGN), which is charged with planning and implementing the new school meals program. A number of Indonesian academic and NGO partners will also join forces to generate and curate the information the government needs to sustainably and equitably source local blue foods for school meals.
A key aspect of the collaboration will be helping Indonesian decision-makers identify species that meet key nutrient deficiencies, are locally available, sustainably produced, and offer low-carbon alternatives to terrestrial sources of animal protein. The team aims to develop data tools to support these decisions, particularly on the local level, helping ensure communities invest in blue foods available in their markets, preferred by their consumers, and that meet local nutritional needs.
The team is developing pilot programs in three provinces to explore how the program can address varying social and economic disparities, cultural contexts, and other factors that may drive regional differences in the program’s success. The vision is that these pilots can inform the program’s future nationwide implementation.
- Jen Burney | Professor of Environmental Social Sciences and of Earth System Science, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
- David Cohen | Founding Director, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford School of Humanities & Sciences
- Christopher Gardner | Rehnborg Farquhar Professor, Stanford School of Medicine
- Zach Koehn | Research Data Scientist, Center for Ocean Solutions
- Jim Leape | Co-director, Center for Ocean Solutions
- Roz Naylor | William Wrigley Professor, Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
- Dian Rositawati | Advisor, Center for Ocean Solutions
- Elizabeth Selig | Managing Director, Center for Ocean Solutions
- Colette Wabnitz | Lead Scientist, Center for Ocean Solutions
- Indonesia National Research and Innovation Agency (Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, or BRIN)
- Indonesia Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas)
- Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative
- Institut Pertanian Bogor University (IPG)
- Indonesia National Food and Nutrition Agency (Badan Gizi Nasional, or BGN)
- RARE
This project is made possible through funding from the Realizing Environmental Innovation Program at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator.