The EffortX Indonesia School Meals Programme is a scalable nutrition initiative designed to provide consistent, sustainable meals to school children across Indonesia. Phase 1 focuses on launching fully operational feeding systems across 4 schools across Bali and Sumba, delivering over 62,000 meals annually to approximately 400 children.
Right now, many children attend school hungry or don’t attend at all. This leads to poor concentration, lower attendance, and long-term health and development challenges. Without intervention, the cycle continues. This project changes that. The EffortX Indonesia School Meals Program is a mission designed to solve one of the most fundamental barriers to education in Indonesia - access to consistent, nutritious food. We are building fully operational, self-sustaining school meal systems that provide consistent nutrition directly where it matters most, inside schools. 90c = 1 nutritious school meal $20.00 = Feeds a full classroom $100.00 = Feeds a whole school for a day Each school is equipped with everything required to run independently: A functional kitchen (built if needed) A hydroponic growing system Reliable local food supply (rice, cassava, corn, eggs, vegetables) Two local cooks employed to prepare meals and maintain the system Meals are prepared and served on-site, ensuring consistency, quality, and long-term sustainability while creating local jobs. Phase 1 focuses on activating 4 schools in Waingapu, delivering over 62,000 meals annually to approximately 400 children. Fresh nutrition at this stage of a child’s life is not a comfort. It is the difference between a brain that develops properly and one that does not. Malnutrition in early childhood causes cognitive damage that no amount of schooling can fully correct later. By delivering consistent, balanced meals at school, we are tackling the root cause of poor development before it becomes permanent. The meals also give families a direct reason to send their children to school and keep them there, improving attendance in communities where dropout is common and education is fragile. For the women who cook the meals, it creates reliable paid work inside their own community. For local suppliers and growers like Dimas, it creates consistent demand that sustains their livelihoods. The impact of one meal programme, delivered properly, moves through an entire community.
You stay in control. Change or cancel anytime.
This project will provide consistent, nutritious meals to school children in Bali and Sumba for a fully year, directly improving attendance, health, and cognitive performance while establishing a sustainable, locally operated feeding system that can scale across the islands.
4 fully operational school meal systems established across Bali and Sumba
400 children receiving consistent meals each week
62,400 meals delivered annually
School attendance increased by a measurable percentage across participating schools
8 local jobs created (2 cooks per school) to support ongoing operations and system maintenance
Ensuring that communities become self-sufficient through phased implementation.
We launch in one school in Sumba. This looks like one hydroponics installation, two community cooks, locally sourced staple supplies, and a secured backup supply relationship for fresh produce. The school provides the space. We provide everything else. By the end of year one, the model is working. Meals are being prepared and eaten consistently. Dimas is managing operations. The cooks are paid. Donors following the project on the platform are receiving real updates and proof of meals delivered. We have content from the ground that shows exactly how the system functions, and we have a financial and operational record clean enough to take to the next school and, eventually, to government conversations.
With a proven model, transparent financials, and documented impact, we plan to expand across additional schools in Sumba using Dimas's existing network as the foundation. Each new school follows the same structure, with local cooks, local staple supply, hydroponics for fresh nutrition, supporting fundraisers, regular proof of delivery back to donors. By the end of year three, we are operating across multiple schools with a coordinated supply network, a growing base of donors who have seen consistent delivery, and a body of impact data that demonstrates operational efficiency at scale. This positions us for the next phase, which is formal engagement with the Indonesian government's school meals programmes as a delivery partner and, in parallel, replication of the model in a new region with a new local coordinator following the same framework we proved in Sumba.
By years four and five, the programme has moved beyond Sumba. With two years of operational data behind us, cost per meal, meals delivered, and transparent proof of impact, we enter formal partnership conversations with the Indonesian government. Indonesia funds school nutrition nationally. Our goal is to become a recognised delivery partner, demonstrating that our model, local coordinators, community cooks, hydroponics supply, and transparent reporting, delivers results more efficiently than the alternatives. When government co-funding covers the schools, our donor funds are freed to go further. The families, elderly, and vulnerable people living in remote communities surrounding these schools face the same nutritional gaps as the children we are already reaching. With school operations sustainably funded, every donation raised through EffortX extends fresh nutrition directly into those communities, reaching people who will never be covered by a government programme. Across both years, we replicate the model on additional islands in eastern Indonesia where children and communities face the same conditions we addressed in Sumba. Each new location follows the same approach: a trusted local coordinator already embedded in the community, fresh vegetables from locally managed hydroponics systems, staple foods sourced from nearby suppliers, and community women preparing meals on site. No single point of failure. No dependence on imported supplies or outside staff.
The ongoing result is a programme that does not need to be rescued or rebuilt every few years. The government funds the schools. Donors reach the communities the government cannot. Local teams run the operations. And the model, proven first in one school in Sumba, is feeding children and communities across multiple islands.
Once the project is finished, donors share their experiences and verified impact reports are published here.
Run a campaign for a birthday, marathon, event, or any occasion.
You stay in control. Change or cancel anytime.