Hunger and food security: Findings from the GCRO's Quality of Life survey 7 (2023/24)

This Data Brief presents results from the GCRO's Quality of Life 7 survey (2023/24) on variables that relate to hunger and food security in Gauteng.

HEADLINE FINDINGS

• Household adult hunger has increased across ten years of the Quality of Life (QoL) Survey. In QoL 7 (2023/24), one in four (26%) of all respondents report that an adult in their household has skipped a meal in the past year because there was not enough money to pay for food, up from 14% in QoL III (2013/14) (Figure 1).
• Childhood hunger remains consistent where one in five households report that children have skipped a meal because there was not enough money for food. However there is encouraging evidence of increasing government support, with the number of children benefiting from school feeding schemes increasing to nearly half of all children in households surveyed (48%) (Figure 1).
• More than one in ten of households in Gauteng (12%) can be considered to be severely food insecure (Figure 4). This is where households have reported hunger, insufficient spending on nutritious food and poor access to food.
• Food insecurity is driven by the inability to afford a basic nutritious basket of food. Almost two-thirds of respondent households in Gauteng (65%) do not spend enough on food to secure a basic basket of nutritious food. Larger households are significantly less likely to be able to buy a basic nutritious food basket (Figure 2).
• Food insecurity impacts overall well-being. Respondents that live in households that are severely food insecure are more likely to believe that nobody cares for them (42% of respondents), be unemployed (68% of respondents), report poor health (19% of respondents) and not have enough money in the home to save for retirement (63% of respondents) (Figure 7).