Perspectives of Food Insecurity and Service Delivery amongst Emergency Food Relief Clients in a Regional City in Victoria, Australia

Table 2

Food security status in the last 12 months, severity and components according to the USDA-HFSSM-6 item of people accessing emergency food relief programmes in the city of Ballarat, Victoria.

Food security status and components	Categories	Count (%)
Food security status: USDA-HFSSM-6 item adult, n = 100	Food secure	8
	Food insecure	92
Food security severity status: USDA-HFSSM -6 item adult, n = 100	High food security	2
	Marginal food security	6
	Low food security	29
	Very low food security	63
Food security components of those classified as food insecure USDA-HFSSM-6 item, n = 92		Low food secure n = 29 (%)	Very low food secure n = 63 (%)
Did you ever cut the size of your meals or skip meals because there was not enough money for food?	Yes, almost every month	4 (14)	45 (71)
	Yes, some months but not every month	8 (28)	14 (22)
	Yes, only 1 or 2 months	3 (10)	4 (6)
	No	14 (48)	0 (0)
Did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there was not enough money for food?	Yes	10 (34)	59 (94)
	No	15 (52)	3 (5)
	Don’t know	4 (14)	1 (2)
Were you ever hungry but did not eat because there was not enough money for food?	Yes	11 (38)	57 (90)
	No	16 (55)	5 (8)
	Don’t know	2 (7)	1 (2)
The food that I/we bought just did not last, and I/we did not have money to get more	Often true	8 (28)	30 (48)
	Sometimes true	14 (48)	31 (49)
	Never true	5 (17)	1(2)
	Don’t know	2 (7)	1(2)
I/we could not afford to eat balanced meals	Often true	4 (14)	34 (54)
	Sometimes true	12 (41)	28 (44)
	Never true	11 (38)	1(2)
	Don’t know	2 (7)	0 (0)
In the last 12 months did you ever not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food?	Yes, almost every month	4 (14)	13 (21)
	Yes, some months but not every month	5 (17)	18 (29)
	Yes, only 1 or 2 months	5 (17)	12 (19)
	No	15 (52)	20 (32)
Food security components households with children <18 years of age, n = 26 (%)		Count n (%)
I/we could not feed my/our children a balanced meal because I/we couldn’t afford that	Often true	8 (31)
	Sometimes true	14 (54)
	Never true	8 (31)
My/our children were not eating enough because I/we could not afford enough food	Often true	2 (8)
	Sometimes true	13 (50)
	Never true	11 (42)