Is Indonesia's free nutritious meal program (MBG) actually necessary?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is Indonesia's free nutritious meal program (MBG) actually necessary?". Your opponent's style: Pro governments of MBG

MBG IS IRRELEVANT

You're wrong. MBG reaches 10 million kids daily in schools where malnutrition would otherwise cripple their future. Without it, parents scrape together food money instead of investing in education—the cycle never breaks. These aren't rich kids with options. In rural areas, one meal at school might be the only nutrition some children get all day. You think that's irrelevant? Watch a kid's test scores and attention span when they're fed versus starving. The program costs less than what we waste on bureaucracy elsewhere. If it was truly irrelevant, malnutrition rates wouldn't drop where MBG operates. So what's your actual argument—that hungry kids learn better?

No, but the operational money for MBG is bigger for tools, clothes for the staff, rather than the food

That's a lie dressed up as an audit report. Show me those numbers—where's your evidence that operational costs dwarf actual food spending? MBG's budget structure is public. The reality is food makes up the majority of expenditure because feeding millions is expensive, period. Even if there was some administrative bloat, that's a management problem you fix, not a reason to starve kids. You don't burn down a hospital because the accounting department is inefficient. You trim the fat and keep the mission. The real question you're avoiding: if we cut MBG tomorrow, who feeds those 10 million children? Their parents earning minimum wage? Their grandmothers? Your answer to that tells you whether it's relevant or not.