In recent years, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for food security has become increasingly vital, driven by the demand for evidence-based strategies. While effective M&E supports informed decision-making and enhances communication among stakeholders, a strong focus on quantifiable outcomes often overlooks the importance of social context, limiting the depth of impact assessments. Although qualitative approaches are gaining recognition for addressing this gap, they remain underused and often take a backseat to quantitative methods. This research investigates how qualitative methods are employed in both academic literature and field practice. From a methodological perspective, the investigation combined a scoping review with a small-scale interview study. The scoping study focused on peer-reviewed academic literature and the interview study involved field staff from the World Food Programme (WFP) whose work is focused on M&E. The scoping review identified trends in their integration within mixed-methods research, while interviews with WFP staff revealed practical limitations, including resource constraints and insufficient institutional support. There are substantial number of research using qualitative methods for its core function, explaining how and why. Qualitative assessments at the WFP are usually conducted as complementary research to interpret quantitative findings, and the organization provides guidelines to support this process. However, findings indicate that qualitative tools are applied in limited ways and remained an adjunct input to M&E. The study recommends expanding their use to cover a broader range of topics and objectives, enhancing the comprehensiveness of food security evaluations, and providing more systematic support.