IN PHOTOS | What’s on your plate? Seven meals show what food insecurity looks like in South Africa

Health-e News IN PHOTOS | What’s on your plate? Seven meals show what food insecurity looks like in South Africa For some families, dinner is pap and spinach.

For another, chicken and bread must stretch across a household of 12.

At a Free State school, a plate of samp, beans and vegetables may be a child’s main meal of the day.

As part of our Hungry for Change series, Health-e News community journalists asked people to show us what is actually on their plates.

Registered dietitian and public health nutritionist Helen Donkin from the Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA) analysed seven of the meals, using portion sizes estimated from photographs and nutritional information from the South African Food Data System (SAFOODS).

When pap has to stretch between three children and their mother Zinzi*, a 32-year-old single mother of three in Lenasia South, sells chicken feet on the street to feed her children.

When that income is not enough, she says she sells sex for cash or food.

The family usually eats twice a day.

Pap is their staple and on difficult days it may be all they have.

When food runs short, Zinzi* shares a plate with her toddler while her two sons share another.

In March, Zinzi’s* daughter spent a week at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

Zinzi* says doctors told her the child was malnourished.

Read Zinzi’s* full story: On The Brink Of Hunger: ‘I Sell Sex And Chicken Feet To Feed My Children’ *Not her real name Donkin says the photographed meal of pap and spinach provides much-needed energy, but is low in several important nutrients.

“Inexpensive food is not a problem per se, but often these foods tend to be lower dietary quality, or mostly contributes one macronutrient, like only carbohydrates or fats.” This is particularly important for young children.