Hunger rising sharply across SA households

South Africa is facing a deepening hunger crisis, with millions of households skipping meals, compromising nutrition and resorting to harmful coping strategies because of rising food prices, unemployment and inequality.

- Sheree Bega

Food insecurity: Households typically move through stages: worrying about running out of food; cutting portions or compromising diet quality; skipping meals; and ultimately going a whole day without eating. Photo: File

(File)

Between 2019 and 2023, the country’s severe hunger rate rose from 6.4% to 8%, leaving roughly one million more people going days without food, according to FoodForward SA’s flagship State of Household Food Insecurity in South Africa Report 2026, which reveals the scale, persistence and severity of the crisis.

Food assistance often serves as the last thin buffer in a system where food insecurity has become chronic and structural.

The report is the product of an 18-month research partnership between FoodForward SA and the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (Saldru) at the University of Cape Town.

Using internationally recognised tools — including the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) — the study translates early warning signs into robust, policy-relevant evidence of a crisis that is worsening, not easing.

Based on interviews with the heads of 796 households receiving food through FoodForward SA’s national network of beneficiary organisations, the findings reveal that hunger remains widespread, deeply entrenched and unrelenting — even among families already accessing food support.

According to the report, while progress had been made in the early 2000s, recent years have seen reversals due to conflict, climate change, economic downturns and global health crises. Rising food prices and supply chain disruptions have further undermined access for vulnerable populations.