Over 1,000 Sickened by Indonesia School Meals

Indonesia’s flagship Free Nutritious Meal programme has been hit by repeated food‑poisoning outbreaks, with more than 1,000 children falling ill in West Java this week and nationwide totals variously reported at about 1,333 to more than 5,000 suspected cases since January. Authorities say implicated kitchens have been suspended, samples collected and task forces of nutritionists and health workers deployed, and investigations are continuing. The programme has rapidly expanded (serving over 20 million recipients) and officials say it aims to feed roughly 82–83 million people by year‑end and is backed by a multi‑billion‑dollar budget; NGOs have urged a pause while safety reviews proceed and some regional governors have called for evaluations and support for traumatised students. The government has defended the scheme as largely safe, saying affected portions are a small fraction of roughly 1 billion meals cooked. Separately, in Miami five students at Pinecrest Glades Academy were hospitalized after consuming a mysterious food item; authorities treated the incident as a Level One mass‑casualty event while detectives investigate.