Food insecure household coping strategies: the case of a low income neighborhood in South Africa

Abstract

Food security can be defined as a state in which all people in a household have at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life. In the last decade household food insecurity in rural and urban areas has been associated with several negative health and nutrition outcomes. The questions which arise are thus: How do food insecure households in urban areas cope with food insecurity? To what extent do they limit food intake as a coping strategy? A quantitative research method was deployed and a stratified random sample of 300 was used to collect data in Bophelong, a low income neighborhood in South Africa. The Coping Strategies Index (CSI) and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) were used to measure the food security status of the households. The CSI Raw Score and HFIAS Score was then calculated and the correlation with different coping strategies determined. The study found that households did use coping strategies in order to mitigate shortages of food. Additionally, it revealed that as CSI scores/HFIAS scores increased, the reliance on consumption coping strategies by households increased. This indicates a high level of food insecurity. Spearmans correlation indicates that food limiting strategies correlated significantly with the cumulative CSI scores and HFIAS scores of households. The study concluded that urbanization and the resultant effects of unemployment, poverty, and ultimately, food insecurity, remain a challenge to policymakers. There may be an urgent need for the development of a more comprehensive food security strategy, focusing on urban as well as rural areas in South Africa.