Food Availability

To comprehend the food availability domain, it is crucial to introduce the geographic context of the neighborhood. The families live in a shantytown (favela, in Portuguese), not attended by some basic public services, such as public transportation. The residents need to walk to the nearest bus stop outside the neighborhood, about 500 meters away to use this service. Although the distance is not that long, the streets are steep, and the terrain is uneven, making it difficult.

Scarce food options and higher prices in the neighborhood. Participants mostly use supermarkets outside the neighborhood to buy food due to the lower prices. This finding is consistent with previous studies that found the problem of food deserts in urban areas is overcome by mobility strategies the residents employ to buy food outside the neighborhood (Clifton, 2004; Shannon, 2016). These studies demystified the simplistic assumption that low-income residents are reliant on stores within their neighborhood, with scarce and high-priced food options (Clifton, 2004; LeDoux & Vojnovic, 2013; Shannon, 2016; Shannon & Christian, 2017). Instead, urban residents buy food outside their neighborhoods, at large chain discount supermarkets, where they can maximize their purchasing power.

Regarding the supermarkets outside the neighborhood, the participants cited both retailers and wholesalers. Carrefour is the most frequented retailer supermarket, a supermarket chain located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the neighborhood, 20 minutes by walk. Extra is another

supermarket chain that appeared in the interviews, but less frequently, since it is located further away, approximately 5 kilometers from the neighborhood. About the wholesalers’

supermarkets, both Atacadão and Assaí appeared in the interviews. Atacadão is located 2,5 kilometers from the neighborhood, 6 minutes by car and 15 minutes by public transportation.

Assaí is located nearby, 2 kilometers away from the neighborhood, 5 minutes by car, and 13 minutes by public transport.

There is no supermarket chain in the neighborhood, only two small grocery stores and a greengrocery. It is relevant to say that Tarsila owns one of the neighborhood's grocery stores.

However, these stores sell a smaller variety of food at much higher prices than the supermarket chains. Considering the high food prices, the participants only buy food in the neighborhood when they need some product “in an emergency.”

So, for example, when I run out of bananas and stuff like that, I buy them here [in the neighborhood]. It's just for an emergency, only in an emergency. We also buy soda. Sometimes we feel like drinking soda, and then we buy it here. If it's missing and there's no other way, we buy it here. (Angela)

I only buy here if it's something I really need. If I'm going to make a recipe or something that I really need. Because things here are very expensive. In the supermarket, you can buy two and here you can only buy one. So, it's rare when I buy anything here. (Geni)

Through these passages, it is possible to infer that the local grocery stores’ role is to supply emergency food needs. The participants prefer to buy the “official food purchases” in the supermarkets outside the neighborhood. In this sense, urban poor families prioritize price over convenience, even if they need to travel outside the neighborhood to access lower prices (Alkon et al., 2013; Clifton, 2004; LeDoux & Vojnovic, 2013; Shannon, 2016; Shannon & Christian, 2017).

Searching for better prices outside the neighborhood is a mechanism that urban poor families employ to surpass the scarce food options and higher prices in the neighborhood. According to Hill and Sharma's (2020) categorization of coping strategy, this is a creating new structures type. Going outside the neighborhood, urban poor families are searching for a new channel of consumption, where they can stretch their money and exercise more control over their food options.

Build environment obstacles. Some participants have serious trouble accessing the supermarkets from outside the neighborhood. Residents consider proximity to the supermarket and the built environment (i.e., public transportation, accessibility streets) (Alkon et al., 2013;

Huang et al., 2015). Food access is even more difficult for those participants with locomotion disabilities. Even though Carrefour is 20 minutes away by walk, some participants have physical limitations that difficult their locomotion. Consumers with locomotion disabilities are more likely to face a higher level of food insecurity due to the barriers to accessing food (Schwartz et al., 2019). The following passage illustrates how a simple walk to the supermarket might be pained.

When I go to the supermarket, I can even make my way to go. I go slowly, stopping little by little. But going back is difficult because the terrain is very steep, and then I can't go up. (Marta)

Marta narrates the agony that she experiences every time she has to go to Carrefour. Due to a work-related accident, she cannot walk without feeling pain in her leg. For this reason, Marta avoids going to the supermarket frequently. Marta’s purchase power is not defined only by financial conditions but also by physical constraints.

For the participants that own a car, the shopping trip is more feasible. They reserve the weekends to buy food and go to the wholesalers to access lower prices. Those who do not have a car usually walk to the wholesalers. To go back home, they create mobility strategies, such as collective transportation (Clifton, 2004; Coveney & O’Dwyer, 2009) transport apps.

When I go shopping there in Assai, those vans bring us home, and we pay ten reais, depending on the distance. Then you pay ten, fifteen reais.

Then they bring us and the purchase. And there was even a time when my neighbors and I divided the van. (Eduarda)

Eduarda describes how she manages to go back home with all the bags that she bought in the supermarket. To make the collective transportation even cheaper, she and her neighbors divided the van and shared the amount. The same spirit of cooperation that appeared in food marketing to access the promotions permeates the interviews regarding food availability. Nowadays, with the advent of transport apps, purchases in supermarkets away from home are even more feasible.

I always went with my husband. When I didn't have this leg pain problem, I always walked. Then I asked my sister to call us an Uber,

right? It was about ten reais. Because we couldn't bring the things, because it was a lot of things we bought. (Marta)

In this passage, Marta describes how she used to go to the supermarket when she did not have leg pain. She says that calling an Uber was not expensive. It was almost the same as using the collective vans.

Creating mobility strategies is a coping strategy categorized as a transcending one (Hill &

Sharma, 2020). Through this mechanism, urban poor families surpass their locomotion issues and create a means to access supermarkets with better prices than outside the neighborhood.

Restricted access to fruits and vegetables. The residents have restricted access to fruits and vegetables. Most families resort to basic food basket donations, which only have non-perishable food. To access fruits and vegetables, families have two options: buy in supermarkets and street fairs or resort to coping strategies to access these foods. This section highlights four coping strategies that urban poor families employ to access fruits and vegetables: organizing community street fairs with donations, shopping at xepa, cultivating of vegetable garden at home, and bargaining for credit in the street fair.

A few years ago, the neighborhood had a community fair where they could access donated fruits and vegetables for free (see Figures 9 and 10). Angela was the fair organizer and narrated how she received the donations.

I actually met a woman who received [donations from the supermarket], and she called us because it was too much for her. So she took and still had for us. And we could give it to a lot of people here. It had everything. We took things that the supermarket had nothing else to do with, that were already too ripped. It wasn't that it was spoiled, there was a lot to use. Oh, there was plenty of it for a lot of people. People came and lined up and chose, you know? It was nothing separate given.

People came and chose what they wanted. And it was really good because everyone got satisfied.

In this passage, Angela describes how she organized the community street fair with fruits and vegetable donations. She narrates that she met a woman who received donations of fruits and vegetables from this supermarket, but it was too large an amount. So the woman offered her to

take part in the donations to the neighborhood. Angela accepted the donations and organized a community street fair in her backyard, where everyone was welcome to grab fruits and vegetables for free.

Figure 9. Women choosing fruits from the community street fair.

Source: Participant’s personal file.

Figure 10. Women and children choosing fruits from the community street fair.

Source: Participant’s personal file.

The second coping strategy that urban poor families employ to access fruits and vegetables is buying in xepa. When the street fairs’ products are almost finished, some damaged products remain but are still suitable for consumption. Then, marketers do promotions, selling these products at a lower price than the original or donating them.

And it's time for the rich people to go to the street fair. And there's a time for the poor, right? We go on the cheap time. We already leave the house right at the very end [of the street fair]. When you start buying, suddenly, when you come back, it's already cheap. So, that's how it is.

You can't go shopping right away. You have to walk a little and look, and then you buy. (Angela)

Through this passage, Angela describes her buying strategy in the street fairs on the “cheap time.” She uses this expression to refer to xepa (in Portuguese): the final moment of the street fairs, when marketers sell at lower prices or even donate food leftover from the daily sale.

Angela explains that she goes to the street fairs when they are almost ending to take advantage of xepa.

Some families access fruits and vegetables from their vegetable garden at home. The participants explain how they cultivate various fruits and vegetables in their backyards.

Yes, I had a lot of pumpkins, then it started to fall, and I ripped them off. But here I've eaten pumpkin here in my backyard, I've eaten gherkin here in my backyard. Tiny like that, cabbage, coriander, chives, I've eaten everything from here. If I die, I can say: “From my backyard, I ate everything.” (Cintia)

Here I have cabbage, coriander, celery, and sweet potato. I think that some tomato plants are already sprouting in the back of the house. Do you know that cherry tomato that is very small? I think my brother planted some lettuce in the back of the crate. There are chives planted.

And it has a chayote tree. My brother cut the other big tree, and now it's coming small. So, we have already torn some things off the tree, and others we have already eaten. (Talita)

We've wanted to plant a vegetable garden here for a long time. Then my daughter took the initiative to make the vegetable garden. We spent two months eating the lettuce she planted. (Eduarda)

In the previous passages, participants narrate how they manage their vegetable garden at home and how fruitful it is. In addition to being one of the only sources of fruit and vegetables for families, these vegetable gardens are also a source of pride. Cintia highlights that she has already eaten all of the fruits and vegetables in her vegetable garden if she dyes.

Another coping strategy to access fruits and vegetables is to buy on credit. Cintia narrates that a fruit seller passes by the neighborhood, and he allows her to take the food and pay whenever she has enough money.

Cintia: And there's a boy who passes by selling fruit. Then he passes by, and I take the fruit, I take the orange, I take all kinds of fruit, vegetables. I owe him two hundred reais.

Interviewer: Does he have a good price?

Cintia: No. It’s expensive. But it's good because he waits for you to get the money to pay, you know? Let's say, I owe a hundred reais, and I go to him and say, “I don't have anything, can I get something?”. He says,

"take it." If you can only pay fifty, forty, he doesn't complain, understand?

Although Cintia has her vegetable garden, she sometimes needs to buy fruits and vegetables that she does not cultivate. The only means she finds to purchase fruits and vegetables is buying from a seller who passes by in the neighborhood. Even though his price is higher than at supermarkets and street fairs, Cintia needs to buy from him because she does not have enough money to buy in these other places.

All the four coping strategies demonstrated in this subsection (i.e., organizing community street fairs, shopping at xepa, cultivating vegetable garden at home, bargaining for credit with the fruit seller) can be categorized as creating new structures (Hill & Sharma, 2020). Since participants cannot access fruits and vegetables through the common marketplace, they develop new channels to access these food items, trying to improve their FWB.

These coping strategies employed by the participants are relevant to maintain or increase the families’ food insecurity degrees. If not for these coping strategies, families could not access fruits and vegetables, having to resort only to non-perishable food from basic food baskets.