Spending Patterns Of Food Secure And Food Insecure Households In Urban Areas: The Case Of Low Income Neighborhoods

Food security is one of the most critical problems facing Sub Sahara Africa as more than 45 percent of households have moderate to severe household hunger. The number of poor people living in urban areas is increasing as well as the number of food insecure households, mainly because of the demographic and economic challenges associated with urbanization. The World Bank identified three cornerstones underpinning food security namely, food availability, food accessibility and food utilization. In this context food availability means ensuring sufficient food is available while food accessibility means ensuring enough income to purchase food, and food utilization refer to ensuring quality food. The vulnerability of the poor is sometimes due to unemployment and a lack of sufficient income. This paper focus on food accessibility and how spending patterns of food insecure households may influence food availability in those households. The paper examines the difference in spending patterns of food secure and food insecure households. A quantitative research method was deployed and a stratified random sample of 600 households was used to determine the spending patterns of food secure and food insecure households. Statistical test of significance between the food secure households and food insecure households will be used to see if there is a statistically significant difference in the two groups in their spending patterns. Results show a significant difference between the two groups with regard to spending patterns. Among the policy implications emerging from the study include recommendations for government to develop a more comprehensive strategy, focusing on urban areas in South Africa which includes advocacy with regard to ensuring food security on the household level.