<p>Urban food foraging in Singapore is a subculture that persists despite legal restrictions, including fines and imprisonment. Although often featured in mainstream media, local academic research on this practice remains limited. We aim to explore residents’ motivations for engaging in foraging. Given Singapore’s high ranking on the Global Food Security Index, it is believed that foragers’ motivations go beyond food security and are more aligned with food sovereignty, reflecting a collective desire for greater control over their food systems. Using frameworks of food security and food sovereignty, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with foragers and analyzed social media. Results show that foragers’ motivations are complex, primarily driven by a desire for food sovereignty. Specifically, they seek better access to, control over, and use of wild foods because of their availability, freshness, cultural significance, and benefits to the community. Foragers also aim to reduce both personal and community food waste. Concerns about household food insecurity were not prominent among them. Nostalgic and cultural reasons, beyond food, were especially important for older foragers. Our study reveals that foragers successfully work around Singapore’s formal food policies and public infrastructure to meet their needs through urban foraging. In summary, we suggest that legalizing and regulating urban food foraging could serve as a community-led approach to supplement national efforts in food security.</p>