Resilience And Food Insecurity in Beneficiaries of a Community Kitchen

Background. Food insecurity (InSAN) is the lack of regular access to sufficient nutritious food. Resilience is the ability of a system exposed to a threat to resist, adapt, and recover from its effects in a timely and efficient manner. The Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) estimates household resilience to InSAN with a quantitative approach. Objective. Study the relationship between InSAN and RIMA in a vulnerable population. Methods. Cross sectional study. The Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) and the RIMA were applied to 17 beneficiary families of a community kitchen. The correlation with the SPSS program was analyzed. Results. The ELCSA did not correlate with the total RIMA (r = -0.06, p = 0.41), but it did with some of its components: percentage of salary used to buy food (r = -0.527, p = 0.018) and loans received (r = -0.532, p = 0.017). Conclusions. It is relevant to identify efficient coping strategies to strengthen food resilience in the population.