On August 14, in the city of Sragen, located in Central Java province, an incident that caused wide public attention nationwide was recorded. More than 360 students and residents who had lunch under the free school meal program initiated by President Prabowo Subianto were hospitalized with symptoms of poisoning. This was reported by “Independent”.
According to witnesses, one of the students woke up at night with severe abdominal pain, headache, and diarrhea. After seeing on social media that his classmates had the same complaints, he realized the cause was food poisoning. Officials say this is the largest mass poisoning case since the launch of the free meal program.
A representative of Central Java province named Sigit told journalists:
— We requested to temporarily stop serving food from this cafeteria until the laboratory test results are available.
The head of the National Food Agency, Dadan Hindayana, stated that after previous poisoning cases, the sanitary standards for cafeteria operations and food delivery processes had been raised.
The free school lunch program was one of Prabowo’s key election campaign promises. This multi-billion-dollar initiative aims to improve the quality of life of the population and boost economic growth. According to the president, such programs are an investment in the health of the younger generation, strengthening their future learning and development opportunities.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Authorities are advising the public to follow precautionary measures until official information and recommendations are released. This also means that the issue of food safety in schools will be under even stricter control.
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