Capetonians battle to access nutritious food

The next time you walk into your nearest supermarket to purchase necessities (and nice-to-haves) for supper or tomorrow’s lunchboxes, think about the sizeable number of Cape Town’s population who simply can’t afford to buy from supermarkets regularly, or just can’t get there because they live too far from their nearest store and transport costs a fortune.

The State of the City Food System Report, a report that studied Cape Town’s food system and whether Capetonians have suitable access to good, nutritious food, revealed alarmingly high levels of food insecurity in the city, which are compounded by spatial inequities. What this means is that accessing food is a constant uphill battle, especially for those who don’t have nearly enough to feed themselves and their families.

“The report argues that there is more than enough healthy food in the food system, but food is inaccessible to those who need it most,” said Gareth Haysom, a senior urban food system’s researcher in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) African Centre for Cities (ACC). Haysom and his colleague Associate Professor Jane Battersby co-lead the Urban Food System Research Cluster, which produced this report.

Understanding the supply, availability of food

The report is one of 15 reports that set out to understand and engage several cities’ urban food systems. To reach their conclusions, Haysom said research was conducted in north, west, east and southern Africa, and it’s the first time the reports have jointly contributed to a review at this scale.

Turning his focus to Cape Town, Haysom said the report aimed to understand the supply and availability of food in the city, as well as residents’ immediate access to food. Further, he said, the report also intended to unpack pertinent questions related to food utilisation (and nutrition challenges), and the stability and sustainability of the urban food system. What ACC aimed to showcase with this work, Haysom said, was that the city’s urban food system is in fact embedded in its urban system (an interconnected system of buildings, transportation, energy, power and water supply), and that the urban food system directly influences the urban system and vice versa.

“The report worked from the premise that each city’s food system has a history, and that history is linked not only to food histories, but the successes and viabilities of the city.”

“The report worked from the premise that each city’s food system has a history, and that history is linked not only to food histories, but the successes and viabilities of the city, changes in governance, politics and so much more. So, to understand the current food system, we also needed to understand and acknowledge the historical trends in the system of that particular city,” he said.

Food is out of reach

According to the General House Survey published by Statistics South Africa in 2021, almost 250 000 households in Cape Town experience hunger – the highest levels of hunger when compared to the country’s other metros. As if that’s not enough, he said, dietary diversity remains very limited in the city. This means that many Capetonians may not necessarily be hungry, but their diets are not well-balanced and nutritious.  

Does this then mean that there’s an insufficient food supply in the Cape Town food system? Definitely not, Haysom said. In fact, there’s more than enough healthy food in the system, but it remains out of reach to the vast majority of Capetonians. And one of the main reasons for this is due to the astronomical cost of things like transport and electricity.

“Not only are monthly incomes constrained, the cost of transport, data, rent and other infrastructure services and its constant price increases mean that households’ food budgets are under increasing pressure. Limited access to infrastructure affects food security outcomes and drives residents to opt for food choices that are far from nutritious. This means that these households are in a constant state of stress because they always need to make a plan,” he said.

“This is where the city does have a direct mandate and can shift costs associated with all these aspects.”

Accessing food

But how do Capetonians source food? If you thought it was from their local supermarkets, think again! While some residents have the luxury of purchasing food from supermarkets, less fortunate Capetonians only buy from these stores once a month. And throughout the month, regularly purchase from informal vendors in their communities. These purchasing profiles reflect very different food systems in action throughout the city. Haysom pointed out that for upper- to middle-income households, with access to refrigeration and storage, supermarkets offer “great convenience”. But it’s a very different case for households with limited or no access to electricity and resources like refrigerators.

“The informal trader becomes the fridge, the stove and in many cases, even the pantry.”

“In these cases, what happens is that the informal trader becomes the fridge, the stove and in many cases, even the pantry,” he said.

When it comes to the city’s key food system assets, the report found that the Cape Town Fresh Food Produce Market in Epping is one of them. The market supplies fresh fruit and vegetables to residents at the lowest possible prices and offers producers the best market systems.

Involve city governments

In summary, food insecurity exists in high levels in all African cities covered during this research study. Similarly, Haysom said, residents in all these cities also reported that while they would love to follow a nutritious diet, they simply can’t afford it. What’s high on the priority list is balancing the budget to cover rent, transport and electricity, and getting food into their tummies.

Therefore, to ensure thriving cities, he said, municipalities need to start playing a much bigger food systems governance role and lose the notion that they are not responsible for the city’s food mandate. What’s needed, he said, are food governance approaches that embrace both multi-level governance as well as multi-sectoral governance.

“This doesn’t mean that national governments should relinquish their role. National government should acknowledge that this mandate of delivering food security will work well if they plan and work alongside cities. A majority-urban country like ours needs to pay far more attention to the city’s food systems, and cities need to be given the revenue and the governance mandate to get this right,” he noted.

“As South Africans, we need to act as well. The current lack of empathy towards those going hungry and the high levels of hunger cannot and should not be tolerated. How else do we transition and move forward?”