The report is the result of an 18-month research partnership between FFSA and the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) at the University of Cape Town, and involved conducting face-to-face interviews with heads of 796 households that regularly receive food through FFSA’s network of beneficiary organisations across the country, as well as focus group work with donation recipients in a community in Mitchells Plain outside of Cape Town.
The research questionnaire covered four domains:
Using internationally recognised measurement tools, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), the study converts early warning signs into robust evidence, demonstrating how food insecurity is driving rising levels of anxiety and distress.
The findings confirm that food insecurity is increasing, severe, and persistent – even in contexts where food assistance programmes are in place. These pressures are echoed in TransUnion’s Q4 2025 Consumer Pulse Study, which shows that while consumer sentiment towards 2026 is cautiously optimistic, 36% of consumers expect to be unable to meet at least one bill or loan repayment in full, underscoring ongoing affordability constraints.
The situation is considerably worse in underserved communities, where more than 60% of household income is absorbed by debt servicing, leaving little capacity to cope with rising food costs or economic shocks.
While the 796 face-to-face interviews provided critical insight into the challenges facing struggling households, the group work laid bare the relentless anxiety that vulnerable families live with every day. Sharing deeply personal and sensitive struggles was not easy for participants.
One mother in the group had this to say: “I have to tell my children that there is no food tonight. They can’t understand why, and they start to cry.” This is just one of several harrowing stories emerging from the study. The research found that children’s exposure to hunger is widespread. Most children live in moderately food-insecure households, while roughly one-quarter to one-third experience severe food insecurity - highlighting the limits of adults’ ability to shield children from hunger and the resultant anxiety.
The findings underscore that food insecurity is not merely a short-term shock, but a persistent, structural condition for most households, with little evidence of meaningful fluctuation or sustained relief over time.
As the underlying drivers of food insecurity – unemployment and food price inflation – persist, household coping strategies deteriorate. Families move from food rationing to skipping meals, and ultimately to going without food for entire days. The report cautions that “as food insecurity deepens, so do the risks families are forced to take.”
The report concludes with some urgent recommendations. These include:
If we are serious about protecting children and stabilising households, we must move beyond short-term relief to coordinated, evidence-based responses. This report gives us a clear baseline for the kind of targeted action South Africa now urgently needs.
Read or download the full State of Household Food Insecurity in South Africa Report 2026 here:
https://foodforwardsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Household-Food-Insecurity-report2026.pdf
