Food and nutrition security: meanings developed by community leaders and residents of a low-income community in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil

Abstract:

This article aims to explore the meanings associated with the concept of food and nutrition security by residents and community leaders participating in an action-research project in food and nutrition security in the community of Pau da Lima in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil, and how these meanings evolved over the course of the project. The analysis was based on conceptual maps produced by 37 residents and community leaders participating in the initial workshop in 2014, and on the results of a focus group two years later with nine community leaders and residents that formed the core group for the action research throughout the project. The results show that food and nutrition security, initially perceived as an individual issue and based on the foods’ health safety and nutritional quality, became a political issue as an expression of the inequalities and power relations in which the individuals were immersed. Food and nutrition security thus became part of the leaders’ field of praxis and political struggle. In communities with low coverage by community health agents and few leaders for many agendas, the weak inclusion of the food and nutrition security concept and low recognition of the right to food were definitely the main challenge for social participation. In times of democratic setbacks and dismantling of food and nutrition security programs, it is necessary to analyze the development of contents and meanings on the theme in order to expand and strengthen the social base in this struggle.

Keywords:
Food and Nutrition Security; Focus Groups; Community-Based Participatory Research