REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa urged the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and all parties to offer high-quality food, especially rice, in e-Warong, a program of social assistance distribution through an electronic system. "The quality of food assistance, offered through a non-cash system in the form of rice aid for poor families, must be maintained," she noted in a written statement received by Antara in Jakarta on Thursday.

Parawansa emphasized that the beneficiary families can avail and consume good-quality rice and ensure that they have choices with regard to the type and quality of the commodity offered through the e-Warong program using the Prosperous Family Card.

As a provider of food assistance through the e-Warong program, Bulog is expected to maintain the quality of the offered food in order to reduce complaints from beneficiary families. Parawansa affirmed that good-quality rice was not solely for the upper-middle class of society but also for the poor.

She said the program of non-cash food assistance was earmarked for 1.286 million beneficiary families in Indonesia, which are spread in 44 cities, comprising seven in Sumatra Island, 34 in Java Island, and three in the eastern region of Indonesia.

The total recipients of non-cash food assistance in Sumatra Island reached 316,666 families, while there are as many as 32,443 beneficiary families in Batam City in the Riau Islands Province. Non-cash food assistance is a new rice subsidy scheme that utilizes a banking technology in the form of an electronic card. Under the scheme, beneficiary families will receive Rp110 thousand per month to buy rice or other food items, such as cooking oil, eggs, and flour.

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