From School Snacks to Better Nutrition: Building Safe and Nutritious School Food Together

Children are an asset of a nation that could bring changes and advancement, thus they must be nurtured and their rights must be fulfilled properly. One of them is a right to grow and develop optimally. According to Law (UU) no. 35 of 2014 about Child Protection, child is defined as a person under the age of 18, including a child in the uterus. The number of children in Indonesia is 79,55 million and it accounts for about a third of the total population in Indonesia (KPPPA 2018). Furthermore, the total population of children aged 0–14 years in Jakarta is more than 2,6 million or about 25% of the total population (BPS 2019).

There are a bunch of challenges that must be faced, such as ensuring all children can grow and develop properly, in order to create high quality human resources. Children with good growth and development are supported by nutritious food intake and the right stimulus from people around them. Children, including elementary school students, should have an adequate and balanced diet, both in quality and quantity, as an asset to help them perform and study well in school as well as to avoid any infectious disease.

One of the things related to food that must be of particular concern to Jakarta as the largest number of elementary schools in Indonesia is the quality of snacks for school children. This is important considering children spend a third of their time at school so they have more opportunities to get food in the canteen. Based on the World Health Organization (WHO), street food is sold by street vendors in crowded places, consumed directly without either further process or further preparation steps.

One of the potential contamination and disease incidence factors from school snacks is lack of knowledge related to hygiene and sanitation from food vendors. Samples of school snacks taken in 6 cities, including Jakarta, showed that 72.08% of snacks contained hazardous substances and 47.8% of food vendor’s hygiene weren’t good. Based on the food type, snacks contributed to the food poisoning incidence by 13.5% (Manalu and Suidi 2016). The knowledge related to food safety based on nutrition guidelines remains low, thus we often find snacks at school are only rich in carbohydrates and fat but low in other important nutrients.

In 2019, the Regional Government of Jakarta implemented the 324-billion-program called PMT-AS (Supplementary Feeding for Children at School) in which 459 of elementary schools in Jakarta were involved in this program (Times Indonesia 2019). This effort should be appreciated because it shows their concern in fulfilling food and nutrition for children at school.

A similar program had been implemented in Bandung. Despite getting a positive response from the community, the sustainability of the program was low (Rohima 2016). This was due to a top-down approach, so the community participation tended to be only complementary.

As an initial effort, the program of PMT-AS is good to start empowering the community. However, it is necessary to think about the sustainability of the program if the government no longer focuses on providing PMT-AS at school which is dependent and temporary.

Human development becomes important to ensure the sustainability of the program. Communities who have been involved directly in determining school snacks for children, such as food vendors around the school, need to be given good guidance about processing nutritious food as well as hygiene and sanitation. On one hand, the Regional Government of Jakarta can cooperate with the school’s committees and make them become the implementer and the field team at the school that will play a role in accompanying and supervising the food vendors directly.

On the other hand, local governments can also collaborate with the related institutions such as BBPOM, Education Service, Health Service, and Private Sector to implement the program. BBPOM and Health Service will conduct the Training of Trainer (ToT) for some representatives of the school’s committee to increase their knowledge and skills related to providing safe, delicious, and affordable nutritious food. Moreover, it can be completed by giving a nutrition food guideline module which could be developed by school stakeholders. The Education Service helps integrate the program as a school policy under school committee coordination. Private sector plays a role as a supporter program through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Food vendors who have attended the training done by the school committee are entitled to get a certificate of eligibility which will be a part of the requirements to obtain financial aid for SME (UMKM) from the local government. Food vendors who have been trained and received assistance from the local government must be committed to sell nutritious food in accordance with the guideline module at the school. Schools which succeed in running and integrating the program well would get appreciation in the form of providing assistance to improve canteen facilities, like the Japanese Government which provides assistance to school canteens.