Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto is planning to make surprise inspections to make sure that his flagship free nutritious meal program is going well, according to a senior government official.

Indonesia has just launched its historic, budget-heavy program of feeding Indonesian students nutritious lunch plates. The program also targets expectant mothers. Some members of Prabowo's Merah Putih ("Red and White") cabinet had inspected the program in person. Prabowo is set to follow suit, but National Nutrition Agency (BGN) head Dadan Hindayana said he could not say when these inspections would take place.

"[Prabowo] will certainly visit various locations [to check the free meal program]. But this is a surprise inspection, so of course, we cannot predict when he would be making those visits," Dadan told reporters in Jakarta, shortly after meeting the country's lawmakers on Monday.

According to Dadan, Prabowo is keeping an eye on this school-feeding program "at all times".

"A surprise inspection is supposed to be unexpected. As of now, he [Prabowo] has told us to do our best to prepare for the program," Dadan said.

BGN, which is in charge of overseeing the program, also promised to make daily evaluations.

This nutritious meal program is getting Rp 71 trillion or about $4.4 billion in the state budget for 2025 alone. The House of Representatives recently announced that they would not change the Rp 71 trillion budget allocation. 

The government officially launched the free meal program on Monday. They have set up 190 public kitchens across 26 provinces to cook the meals. About 140 small-scale businesses help supply the food that is going to students from kindergarten to high school. By April, the program hopes to reach 3 million people.

The meals provided on the first day varied from school to school. However, the menu mainly consist of the staple food rice, protein (often chicken), stir-fried vegetables, fruit, and milk. In some schools, students also get fried tofu or tempeh as a side dish.