Food insecurity, social support and COVID-19 pandemic among the urban slum dwellers of Soshanguve, South Africa.

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.