Background: Under nutritionremains a global challenge because of the natural and man-made disasters and environmental changes. As a result of the poor socio-economic living standards, the magnitude of under nutritionis high in developing countries, especially in under five children. The government of Ethiopia has implemented the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) since 2005 to combat Under-nutrition. However, there are controversies on the program in addressing the nutritional requirements among children younger than 5 years. Therefore, this study was aimedto assess the household food security and nutritional status of children among safety net program beneficiaries at Gulele Sub City in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from May 01, 2020 to June 30, 2020. A total of288 study participants were drawn from the sub city. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The collected data were coded, cleaned and entered into Epi data version 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 software for analysis.The WHO 2006 Anthro software, ENA was used for analyzing anthropometric measurements. Results: The prevalence of food securityin the households among safety net program beneficiaries in the Sub City was20.8 %. The magnitude of stunting, underweight and wasting were 54.6%, 15.6% and 11.4 %, respectively.Of the 288 children examined for childhood dietary diversity (DDS), only 16.3% of the children had adequate DDS. Moreover, households who get total PSNP of 1000 – 2000 were 0.05 times (AOR = 0.05, 95% CI: (0.01 – 0.18), 2001 – 3000 were 0.10times (AOR = 0.10, 95% CI: (0.03 – 0.36) and 3001 – 4000 were 0.13 times (AOR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03- 0.53) less likely to have food security compared to those who get total PNSP of>4001 Ethiopian birr. Children who live with illiterate household head were 0.24 times (AOR = 0.24, 95% CI: (0.09 - 0.7)) less likely to be well nourished compared to those who live with household head completed primary school. Conclusion and recommendation:This study indicates that food insecurity remains a challenge even with help of PSNP. Thus, designing and implementing participatory community-based nutrition interventions should be given due attention to reduce child under nutrition in the sub-city.