• Over 1,300 students in Indonesia's West Java fell ill from free school lunches.
• Mass poisoning involves various regions, prompting health emergencies and program evaluation.
• The free meals initiative, a key project of President Prabowo Subianto, aims to feed 83 million by year's end.
• Health experts and NGOs demand a pause in the program to address safety flaws.
• Previous incidents linked to negligence in food preparation have raised alarms.

More than 1,300 children in Indonesia's West Java have suffered from food poisoning this week linked to government-issued school lunches, marking the latest outbreak tied to President Prabowo Subianto's controversial free meals programme. The incidents reported in four areas prompted local authorities to declare a health emergency in West Bandung, where the largest number of cases occurred, including over 470 students who fell ill on a single day, according to Reuters and Channel News Asia.

The mass poisoning incidents began earlier this week, which followed a previous case affecting approximately 800 children in both West Java and Central Sulawesi, as reported by The Jakarta Post and BBC. Governor Dedi Mulyadi highlighted that many hospitals were overwhelmed, leading to reports of students being treated in makeshift facilities due to the crisis.

The ongoing health concerns have resulted in renewed calls from both civil society organizations and medical professionals to suspend the free meals programme, which aims to provide nutritious food to 83 million Indonesian children and mothers, as detailed by South China Morning Post and TRT Global. Non-governmental groups point to compromised food safety standards as a major factor contributing to the poisoning cases.

Over the course of the programme since its inception in January, at least 6,452 children nationwide have reported symptoms of food poisoning, according to the Indonesian Education Monitoring Network, as cited by South China Morning Post and BBC. Local health officials have highlighted instances of negligent food preparation practices, including the use of expired ingredients, linking these to the recurrent outbreaks.

Despite ongoing health issues, government officials, including the coordinator for community empowerment, indicated that there are no immediate plans to halt the distribution of meals, citing its importance in combating malnutrition among children, as discussed in TRT Global. However, calls for urgent improvements in food safety and oversight persist, emphasizing the need for a thorough evaluation of the programme's management and standards.