While traditional food security analysis offers an ex post view on who the food insecure are and why they are so, looking at food insecurity from a vulnerability perspective provides a dynamic and forward-looking way of analysing causes and, more importantly, options for reducing food insecurity. This approach can help improve policy responses to food insecurity. The paper seeks to expand a standard food security analytical framework by including risks and the ability to manage these at different levels in order to reduce the probability of people being food insecure in the future. It looks at how different shocks can impact availability, access and utilization and, uses a twin-track approach to identify policy options for reducing vulnerability.