Who Benefits from Food Redistribution? Economic Justice and Local Supplier Participation in Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meals Program

Abstract

Large-scale food assistance programs can serve both social protection and economic redistribution objectives. Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meals Program represents an important policy intervention designed to improve nutritional outcomes while potentially generating economic opportunities throughout local food supply chains. This study examines who benefits economically from the program, focusing on the participation of local suppliers, small enterprises, farmers, cooperatives, and other community-based actors. Using a qualitative policy-analysis approach, the study examines program governance, procurement arrangements, supplier eligibility, and mechanisms for local economic participation. Secondary evidence from government regulations, implementation documents, and relevant socioeconomic literature is used to assess whether the program creates broadly distributed economic opportunities or concentrates procurement benefits among larger and better-capitalized suppliers. The study conceptualizes food redistribution as a multidimensional form of economic justice encompassing both access to nutritional benefits and access to economic opportunities generated by public expenditure. It argues that the distributive impact of the program depends substantially on procurement design, institutional capacity, and the inclusiveness of local supply-chain arrangements. The study contributes to debates on social policy by examining how public food expenditure can simultaneously address welfare deprivation and local economic inequality. It also provides policy considerations for strengthening inclusive procurement mechanisms within large-scale social programs.