IMPACT OF FEEDING PROGRAM ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

IN GRADE 6 LEARNERS

An Undergraduate Research
Presented to
The Faculty of College of Education
Santa Monica Institute of Technology
Iligan City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree

Bachelor of Elementary Education
Major in General Education

ANTIPUESTO, RHEA JANE C.

COMONOG, CAMAR S.
DE ASIS, JOHN DEMWIL P.
KIUNISALA, LENIE E.
MAICTEN, DIANE B.
OPOG, PRINCESS STEPHANY S.
 Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND IT’S SCOPE

Background of the Study

Education is considered as the tool of the country to improve its economy, but how

the government can produce quality education if the students are suffering from

malnutrition and nutrient deficiency. Nutrient and Health problems are no longer new in

the Philippines especially among children in elementary and secondary schools both

public and private. Both government and non-government organizations launched

several feeding programs that can help reduce malnutrition and nutrient deficiency

among students. (Z Obligado 2019).

Every day, 95 children in the Philippines die from malnutrition. Twenty-seven out of

1,000 Filipino children do not get past their fifth birthday. The United Nations

International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reported a third of Filipino children

are stunted, or short for their age. Stunting after 2 years of age can be permanent,

irreversible and even fatal. Attending classes hungry severely impacts children’s and

adolescents’ abilities to learn, thrive, and realize their full potential. Improving children’s

diets and nutrition can have positive effects on their academic performance and

behaviors at school as well as their long-term productivity as adults. On the other hand,

malnutrition led to delayed entry to school, less overall schooling, and 14% lower

earnings as adults. (Bedkri, 2023)

School feeding is one of the public health interventions where meals are provided

at school or take-home rations or in some cases families got food support for sending

their children to school it targeted students of a low socio-economic background and

those who are nutritionally vulnerable. To operate a supplementary feeding program

with particular emphasis on promoting food security and good nutrition in the

nutritionally vulnerable groups of the population, namely those students at risk of

malnutrition. (B Mohammed 2021)

Improving children’s diets and nutrition can have positive effects on their academic

performance and behaviors at school as well as their long-term productivity as adults. It

is in this reason that the researchers want to assess the impact of school based feeding

on learner’s academic performance before and after school feeding program specifically

on the student’s GPA in Grade 6 level. The researchers will have comparative data prior

the implementation of school-based feeding program and the preceding of on

implemented program.

Theoretical Framework

This study is anchored by the three (3) theories, The Theory of Hierarchy of Needs,

Theory of The History of Nutrition, And the Theory Of Food.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, food is considered a basic

physiological need and higher-ordered needs can only be achieved if the basic needs

are met. In the education context, for learners to concentrate on learning and for

educational institutions to achieve high-quality learning, learners’ physiological needs

i.e. food and water must be met before delivering teaching and learning activities.

Physiological needs are the first priority and must be satisfied first. These needs include

nourishment, sleep, clothing, and shelter. People must have these basic needs met in

order to focus on anything else – otherwise, their actions will focus solely on meeting
these physiological requirements. They are the top priority and are therefore the most

important driving factor for human beings. If a person is hungry, they will ignore any

other wants or wishes to focus on satisfying their hunger. If a student is hungry, they

could exhibit distracting or rule-breaking behaviour because education is not their

priority – hunger is.

Aristotle and Galen are at the beginning of the history of nutrition theory. They held

that disease, recuperation, and performance were all significantly influenced by

nutrition. Each body part's potency is believed to be determined by its blood supply. The

nutrients that are taken up from meals enter the bloodstream.

Theory of food provides one perspective for understanding why dieting is so difficult.

It forms as children grow up and implicitly acquire knowledge and habits associated with

food and eating. In the same way that children acquire their first language, ToF

becomes enmeshed in the cognitive makeup of an individual. Adopting a new diet, in

effect modifying a ToF, is to some extent like learning a second language, except more

so--it is like replacing a first language with a new one. Theory of food is likely not as

cognitively ingrained as language, but changes in it nonetheless could have profound

effects on overall cognition. At the individual level, ToF enmeshes the things we eat in a

larger cognitive web. The human species' basic behavioral plasticity and flexibility

means that new foods and dietary patterns can be adopted. But changes of this kind

take time and effort, especially if the components of the old diet remain readily

available. Obviously, contingency is an issue here. People will readily change their diets

if the alternative is extreme hunger or starvation, although even in times of extreme food
 shortage, there are often culturally prescribed responses to such shortages (Farb and

Armelegos, 1980).

Conceptual Framework

This study will be conducted to asses the impact of feeding program on academic

performance of grade 6 learners. It utilizes the IPO scheme or the Input-Process-Output

Model as shown in figure 1. The conceptual framework of this research will start in

determining the profile of the learner in terms of age, weight, and general average

before and after feeding program which is the input. Next is the process of determining

the procedure of feeding program and lastly the output is the impact of feeding program

on student’s performance in grade 6 learners. This visual representation of the research

framework will guide readers in comprehending the key concepts and progression of the

study’s objectives.

Input Process Output

Profile of the learners in

terms of:  Schedule of
 Age Impact of
feeding
 Gender Feeding
program
Program on
 General  Servings of Student’s
average feeding performance in
before and program Grade 6
after  Food that are Learners
feeding being served
program

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the study

Statements of the Problem

This study aims to understand the impact of a feeding program on the academic

performance of grade six learners at Doña Juana Lluch Memorial School. Furthermore,

it seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the grade six learners in terms of:

a. Age

b. Gender

c. General average before and after the feeding program

2. How does the feeding schedule impact the outcomes of the program for grade

six learners?

3. How does the amount of food given in the feeding program affect its efficacy

for grade six learners?

4. How do the foods served affect the success of the grade six program?

5. What is the impact of the feeding program on the academic performance of

grade six learners?

Scope and Limitations

The research is limited to analyzing the impact of feeding on the academic

performance of the grade 6 learners at Dona Juana Actub Lluch Memorial Central

School in Iligan City Lanao Del Norte. It involves determining the academic performance

of the students before the feeding program was implemented and after it was

implemented.
Definition of terms

Behavioral plasticity - refers to a change in an organism's behavior that results from

exposure to stimuli, such as changing environmental conditions. Behavior can change

more rapidly in response to changes in internal or external stimuli than is the case for

most morphological traits and many physiological traits. As a result, when organisms

are confronted by new conditions, behavioral changes often occur in advance of

physiological or morphological changes. For instance, larval amphibians changed their

antipredator behavior within an hour after a change in cues from predators, but

morphological changes in body and tail shape in response to the same cues required a

week to complete.

Physiological needs - are the most basic things that everyone needs in order to

survive. Things like access to food, water, sleep, medical care, and air are all

physiological needs. It is important to understand that the definition of physiological

needs involves traits that have little to do with the brain: the definition of psychological

needs ought to be in stark contrast to a definition of physiological needs, as the two are

mostly separate. Understanding what physiological needs are and why they are

important is an important step to understanding the philosophical theory of Abraham

Maslow.

Concentrate on learning - Concentration allows individuals to understand and use

the available information or resources judiciously to solve problems more efficiently.

This way, they can easily memorise, retain, recall and link the information gained from

different resources. Moreover, when students are focused, they can expand their

knowledge and develop relevant skills to excel academically.