Resilience amidst scarcity: women, food insecurity, and the fight for dignity and rights

Naledi Joyi is a social behavior researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Naledi Joyi is a social behavior researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. (Photo: Supplied)

By Naledi Sikhakhane

8 Apr 2025

Activists say some women barter items, others stand in long lines at food kitchens, and some even stay in abusive relationships because it guarantees a roof over their heads and a meal for their children.

According to a Stats SA 2023 report, 2,6 million people have inadequate access to food, and 1,1 million have severely inadequate access to food. It also highlights that poverty largely affects women, who bear the brunt of food scarcity as primary caregivers.

Caroline Peters, the founder of the Callas Foundation, defines herself as an African feminist, activist, and human rights defender with more than three decades of work in the gender-based violence (GBV) space.

Her journey began as a rape crisis volunteer in the early 1990s, and in 1999 she formally joined the sector at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children in Manenberg. She has since worked with various organisations including the Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women, Ilitha Labantu, and the 1000 Women Trust. In 2018, she founded the Callas Foundation, based in Bridgetown on the Cape Flats.

“Our work is rooted in creating safe, dignified spaces for women and children — particularly survivors of GBV — through food, psychosocial support, court accompaniment, rights training, and prevention work with boys and men. I also chaired the Cape Town Kitchen Network, which connects several community kitchens across the metro and focuses on the intersection of hunger, violence, and justice,” says Peters

She shares the stories she has heard in her line of work, pointing to the relationship between gender and food insecurity.

“The stories are heartbreaking. Women often go without food so their children can eat. Some barter items, others stand in long lines at food kitchens, and some even stay in abusive relationships because it guarantees a roof over their heads and a meal for their children. We’ve heard countless stories of women who take food from our kitchen home, dividing one meal into several portions. Their resilience is unmatched — but they shouldn't have to survive this way. It’s a reflection of systemic failure, not personal choice.”

The Callas Foundation runs a community kitchen that feeds 750 people daily, and through the Kitchen Network it supports other kitchens across areas like Hanover Park, Delft, Gugulethu, Kewtown, and Mfuleni.

Peters prides herself not only in serving meals, but in creating spaces where people, especially women, can feel seen, heard, and supported.

“Many come for food and end up joining support groups, receiving trauma counselling, or being referred to shelters. Our kitchen staff are also trained as GBV first responders and human rights defenders. They are often the first point of contact for women in distress. We also receive incredible support from partners like FoodForward SA, whose regular contributions of food stock help us continue our work and extend our reach,” said Peters.

Hungry food producers

This gendered element to hunger can be seen in rural, agricultural communities as well. Organisations such as Women On Farms have been advocating for the emancipation of women in rural settings from hunger, violence, limited access to sanitation and other indignities.

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, University College Dublin, and the Irish Embassy in South Africa convened a policy roundtable to discuss how policy implementation could be strengthened to address these systemic failures and promote normative diffusion that brings gender, food security, and GBV into the centre of agricultural policy reform.

The roundtable brought together key stakeholders, including the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, the Irish ambassador to South Africa, government representatives, media, civil society organisations, the Embassy of Italy, and academic researchers.

Discussions examined the inadequacies of South Africa’s legislative framework, the exploitative nature of commercial agriculture, and the urgent need for gender-responsive policies, derived from a policy brief titled: A Promise not Fulfilled: GBV in South Africa’s Agricultural system.

Naledi Joyi is a social behaviour researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. (Photo: Supplied)

The working policy brief proposes mainstreaming gender considerations in food security strategies, gender-responsive agricultural and land policies, and bridging the gap between policy and implementation. Naledi Joyi, who co-compiled the working paper with Liezelle Kumalo, said: “There was a strong call for integrating gender-sensitive training and protections into agricultural development programmes. Policies must ensure women farmers have access to land, credit, and agricultural markets, reducing their economic dependency and vulnerability to GBV,” Joyi said.

Joyi is a social behaviour researcher. Her research found that GBV prevention strategies have to be integrated into food security measures.

“Recognising hunger as a form of structural violence will ensure that interventions address the economic conditions that make women vulnerable to exploitation and abuse,” Joyi said.

A study found that despite living and working in rural areas where food is produced, most households earning a living from agriculture were impoverished and unable to meet their basic nutritional needs. When buying food, women spent most of their money on animal protein, cereal, starch, processed food, and takeaways, in that order. The lowest expenditure by women was on fruit and vegetables.

“This highlighted the issue of hidden hunger, experienced by someone whose diet does not meet nutritional requirements. The policy failures discussed at the roundtable highlighted the need for a national monitoring framework that tracks gendered violence, labour rights violations, and food insecurity in agricultural spaces. To strengthen oversight mechanisms, a collaborative approach between government, civil society, and academic institutions was proposed,” Joyi said.

Women collecting food for male partners

Researchers and activists said that in interventions such as food kitchens, women who were in violent relationships still sacrificed their food to collect food for men. Peters said: “We see this often. Women collecting food for men who refuse to stand in the line themselves due to shame or ego. It’s deeply gendered — women are expected to be the caregivers, even when they themselves are hungry, bruised, or exhausted. This reinforces patriarchal power dynamics where men feel entitled to be served, even in spaces of crisis.”

Peters said that there needed to be a rewiring of societal norms “and it starts with education, accountability, and actively shifting gender roles. Men must be engaged in conversations around food justice, dignity, and GBV. We also need to reframe kitchens not just as ‘women’s spaces’, but as community care spaces where everyone has a role,” Peters added.

Peters echoed Joyi’s findings, saying hunger was a form of violence that was “slow, silent, and deeply gendered. When women don’t have access to food, they become more vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and control. The work of community kitchens is about more than food — it’s about resistance, healing, and rebuilding dignity.”

When asked what the main takeaway from her extensive research is, Joyi said "the main takeaway is that sustainable food security cannot be achieved without addressing gender inequalities. Whether in rural South African communities or post-conflict contexts across the continent, women experience hunger not just as a lack of food, but as a reflection of deeper structural inequalities"

"Their exclusion from decision-making, limited access to land and income, and the burden of care work all compound their vulnerability. Addressing food insecurity, therefore, means addressing power—it means seeing food not just as a need, but as a right that must be protected and realized through gender-responsive policies and peacebuilding efforts. Lastly food security should be treated as a hard security issue like other human security issues that are prioritised in WPS and other peace and security agendas," DM

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Hungry food producers

Women collecting food for male partners