Social vulnerability and access to food in times of a covid-19 pandemic: a study in a community in Salvador – Bahia

Abstract

The social vulnerability and the feeding privation are considered old problems in the country, accentuated in the last years by the political and health crises, reverberating on individuals and families lives, experienced in many different ways. In the face of scarcity and uncertainty, many strategies are adopted to maintain the subsistence. This study aimed to analyze the feeding changes and the survival strategies adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Cabula community, previously a quilombo, in Salvador-BA. It is a qualitative approach study, conducted by semi-structured interviews with residents of the territory. The information was organized and analyzed according to speeches from 8 interviewed people. Were identified three categories to analyze, including the feeding changes and strategies in face of vulnerability status; the food insecurity and the consumption of ultra processed food; and the understandings about the social support during the pandemic. In such a way, the present study evidenced feeding modifications adopted in social vulnerability context, accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in a traditional community. From the speeches, new expressions of food insecurity were observed, as well as the socio-cultural mischaracterization of eating, due to subsistence. The community networks of support takes an important role on the access to food, but brings conflicting feelings, given the absence of a culture of rights. More than guaranteeing the food, it is necessary that the State to keep the rights to exist as social, cultural and ethnic beings.