A group of loan sharks are circling a stilted kitchen located above Tomini Bay, off Indonesia’s Sulawesi coast, in the isolated fishing settlement of Torosiaje. Built at a cost of 1.8 billion rupiah ($100,000), the kitchen was established through a government initiative to motivate investors to help develop essential infrastructure aimed at providing free meals to 83 million Indonesians, including students and expectant or nursing mothers, under the national nutrition program.
“I’ve faced significant damage to my reputation, and the losses are staggering,” explained Sigit Buludawa, a 34-year-old attorney who invested his entire savings and borrowed money from illegal lenders to construct the kitchen last November. He spoke during a recent visit to his impoverished village.
Buludawa is among over 400 investors who borrowed funds to set up more than 1,500 kitchens across remote regions. These kitchens operate on reimbursement agreements that have now been delayed or altered as the government seeks to cut costs for the meal program. This information comes from interviews with multiple kitchen owners, official documents, and confidential government contracts reviewed by Reuters.
The accumulated debt is a new hardship for an initiative plagued by management issues, supply chain disruptions, multiple cases of mass food poisoning, and budget reductions since its launch last year. Many kitchens sit unused, children go unfed, and investors owe tens of millions of dollars.
The National Nutrition Agency (NNA), responsible for overseeing the program, did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. In an effort to restore the project’s momentum, President Prabowo has made significant changes, including dismissing the agency’s initial director and launching investigations into corruption allegations. The new head of the agency, Sudaryono, has announced plans to focus on kitchens in areas with high rates of child stunting and in distant regions.
Approximately 700 kitchens, including Buludawa’s, have official agreements ensuring repayment, according to Herwil Junaidi Harefa, head of the Food and Nutrition Association for Remote, Frontier, and Outlying Areas—an organization representing kitchen owners. An additional 800 kitchens are completed but await final government inspections.
Most owners are under pressure from banks or loan sharks, with some having their equipment repossessed. Herwil himself carries a debt of 8 billion rupiah after launching several kitchens. Last month, dozens of association members staged protests in Jakarta.
The free meal program’s scale is remarkable given Indonesia’s expansive archipelago of 17,000 islands and the world’s fourth-largest population. Reaching Torosiaje involves hours of driving through hilly terrain followed by a quick boat ride to this seafaring community of Bajo people, where homes are built on stilts connected by narrow walkways. The kitchen is meant to serve around 400 local students alongside pregnant and nursing women.
Buludawa says that his government inspection was completed in February, but he hasn’t received any reimbursements. The interest on his 1 billion rupiah ($55,000) debt has accumulated without clarity on when or if he will get repaid. Now, he’s left wondering how he will manage his unpaid bills and what he will do with his idle kitchen, equipped with stoves, refrigerators, and hundreds of serving trays.
In 2024, the NNA aimed to accelerate the construction of kitchens in underdeveloped, remote areas with high youth stunting and limited access to nutritious food. They projected full reimbursement and a minimum 100% return on investment over four years, based on initial guidelines from October 2025. Payments were set to be made within 35 to 45 days following government assessments.
At its peak, nearly 28,000 kitchens had been built, with plans for another 13,000. President Prabowo touted the program at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, claiming it would soon surpass McDonald’s in the number of people served globally.
However, fiscal reductions and restructuring efforts have complicated the program. The budget for the current year was cut from 335 trillion rupiah to 268 trillion, as the government needed to realign funds after tensions with Iran. In March, the program’s payment scheme was revised to release 60% after kitchen construction, with the remaining logistics in two installments, and again in May to include daily incentives over two years, according to internal documents.
In June, authorities carried out raids at the NNA offices, leading to the arrest and firing of agency head Dadan Hindayana, who was later detained. A new management team introduced cost-saving measures, including the freezing of plans for 13,000 new kitchens. The budget was further reduced to 229 trillion rupiah. Following Dadan’s detention, contractors lost access to online portals containing key contract and repayment information.
Uncertainty remains in Jakarta. The current NNA chief, Sudaryono, who was appointed after Dadan’s resignation last month, has promised options for resolving ongoing issues but has not shared specifics.
Experts like Ubaid Matraji, from the NGO Network for Education Watch, criticize the program’s poor governance, citing mismanagement of funds and operational missteps. He points out that the program tends to favor urban centers like Jakarta, despite its main need being in remote, underserved areas such as Torosiaje and Sandalan, also in Gorontalo. Residents in these areas mainly farm corn, coconuts, and papayas, earning less than $100 a month.
Zaenuri Mustofa, a 42-year-old local produce collector, constructed a kitchen in Sandalan but still owes money after accruing a debt of 700 million rupiah. “I’ve had enough; I don’t want to go through that again,” he said.
Baiq Sriyono, a mother of a five-year-old in Sandalan, voiced the community’s frustration, expressing hope that the program will start soon to benefit their children.
As owners wait for payments and the fate of their unused kitchens remains uncertain, their debts grow. Herwil summed it up, saying, “We’re basically helping the government. Why are they doing this to us?”
