Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine household food security and coping strategies of an informal settlement in the Vaal Triangle.
Study design: A survey study design was used.
Methods: Pre-tested socio-demographic questionnaires were administered to 357 randomly selected caregivers and 149 children aged 9-13 years old. A validated quantified food frequency questionnaire (QFFQ) and 24-h recall were used to measure dietary intake and food consumption patterns and the Cornell hunger scale to determine coping strategies. Data were statistically analysed for means and standard deviations.
Results: The results indicated that the majority of caregivers (68.8%) had an income of <R500 (77 US dollars) per month, 70.5% (n=190) indicated a frequent shortage of money and 58.3% spent less than R100 (15 US dollars) per week on food. The coping strategies used were: limiting the variety of foods served (74.7%), limiting portion sizes (80%), skipping of meals (68.4%) and maternal buffering (75.8%).
Conclusions: It can be concluded that this is a poverty-stricken community with household food insecurity where the caregivers changed their food consumption patterns to cope, resulting in compromised nutrition.