In-depth interviews conducted with 12 rural widowers participating in a pop
ulation-based study of nutritional strategies of rural adults 70 years and
older were analyzed to (a) identify factors that place widowers at risk for
nutritional problems and (b) understand how rural residence is related to
this risk. The nutritional strategies that successfully accomplished three
groups of food-related tasks (food acquisition, food use, and maintaining f
ood security) focused on one of three resource domains: self-care, informal
support, and formal support. Resources that facilitated these nutritional
strategies are identified, as are those conditions that led to nutritional
strategies inadequate to ensure food acquisition, food use, and food securi
ty. These findings can be used to help identify rural elderly widowers who
are at nutritional risk.