Purpose: This study examined the nutritional status of the elderly availing free meal services according to their food security status. Methods: The participants were 265 elderly at the Elderly Welfare Facility in Seo-gu, Gwangju, Korea. The nutritional status of the subjects was surveyed using the Nutrition Quotient for Korean elderly (NQ-E). Results: The elderly subjects (79 males and 186 females) were grouped as follows: secure, mildly insecure, and moderately/severely insecure group according to their food security status. The elderly groups with food insecurity had a higher proportion of females (p<0.01), lower self-evaluated economic status (p<0.001), lower self-evaluated health status (p<0.001), more self-evaluated depression (p<0.001), and a high prevalence of chronic diseases such as arthritis (p<0.001), osteoporosis (p<0.01), cataract (p<0.05), and thyroid disease (p<0.01). NQ-E was the highest in the food secure group, followed by the food mildly insecure group and the food moderately/severely food insecure group (p<0.01). According to the food insecurity levels, the NQ-E showed significantly higher scores in food intake diversity (p<0.01) and eating behavior (p<0.001). The items that showed differences among the detailed domains were...