Indonesian Nutrition Agency Chief Resigns Amid Free Meals Program Scrutiny

The chief of the Indonesian agency overseeing President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme said on Wednesday she had resigned, citing health reasons, the second leadership change at the beleaguered government body in just over a month.

The resignation of Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, who took over the National Nutrition Agency in June, comes after budget cuts and a criminal investigation into the free meals scheme, which has been dogged by logistical challenges, concerns about quality and several instances of mass food poisoning following its launch in January 2025.

In a Facebook post, Nanik said she had resigned to seek treatment overseas for a heart complaint. “With a thousand apologies I must resign as NNA chief, for my health, and because the president feels sorry for me, he agreed,” she said, adding in a separate post that her doctor warned that her arteries were clogged due to extreme stress.

She said Prabowo was looking into forming a supervisory board for the agency and that she had been asked to lead it. The programme is Prabowo’s most important and expensive election campaign pledge, but it has been a key issue in wider concerns about Indonesia’s financial health.

Nanik said in the post that the programme was not a political issue, as some have accused it of being, but was “an intervention measure for children’s nutrition”.