Food insecurity, social support and COVID-19 pandemic among the urban
slum dwellers of Soshanguve, South Africa.
Abstract
This study examined possible impact of social support on food insecurity
in South Africa’s Soshanguve township. Binomial logit models, combine
statistical and maximum likelihood features to estimate odds of
household food insecurity in Soshanguve, adjusted separately for gender
and employment of household head. Predictably, economic factors are
weakly associated with increased risk of general food insecurity at
lower household incomes, with large families, the unemployed, and those
with lower education. Social support, in the form of access to child
and/or pension grant or special relief of COVID distress, has no
significant impact on food insecurity, neither is receiving in-kind
help. The study is interdisciplinary and contributes to the
understanding of the link between COVID-19 pandemic, and the attainment
of United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) through urban
metabolic flows, and the relationships between physical, social and
economic factors in the urban environment.