Packed lunch, commonly called as “baon” has been a common practice among grade school students. A nutritious packed lunch usually depends on how capable and knowledgeable primary care givers are regarding proper food preparation. This study aims to determine the effect of lecture with meal guide on the knowledge and practices of primary care givers on packed lunch preparation among grade school students of Biswangan Elementary School, Lakewood, Zamboanga del Sur. This is a pre-post interventional study with 36 primary care givers and 54 grade school students. Convenience sampling was used for the selection of respondents. A 45-minute lecture on proper food preparation was conducted. A 10-item true or false questionnaire was given to the primary care givers before and after the intervention to assess the knowledge. Direct observation of their children’s packed lunch was done whether they met the appropriate RENI. Paired t-test was used to analyze significant changes on the knowledge while McNemar’s test was used to analyze significant changes in the packed lunches passing the RENI, the nutritional status of the grade school students and changes in their consumption of packed lunch. Results showed that there was a significant increase in the knowledge of the primary care givers from 7.61(pretest) to 9.11 (posttest1) to 8.32 (posttest2) with a p-value of 0.014 and a significant improvement in RENI content scores for total energy from 4% to 19% (p<0.039) and for carbohydrates from 28% to 46% (p<0.031). This study concludes that Lecture with meal guide has an effect on the knowledge and practices of primary care providers on packed lunch preparation among grade school students in Biswangan Elementary School, Lakewood, Zamboanga del Sur.

Keyword: Lecture Meal guide Primary care givers Packed lunch preparation