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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Alaska

40% certified free/reduced

Across 471 public schools serving 128,247 students, 40.3% of Alaska students are certified free or reduced-price. 210 schools (55% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 23.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

128K

Students enrolled

471

Public schools (CCD)

210

CEP / Provision 2 schools

30

Counties in atlas

Alaska by county

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Toggle between the school-food-access composite, free/reduced eligibility, CEP share, direct-certification rate, and SAIPE school-age poverty. Hover a county to see schools, enrollment, and the underlying certification mix.

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Lower
Higher

Alaska at a glance

Free/reduced

40.3%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

55%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

23.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

81%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

11.2%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.53

Composite 0–1

The access score is a 0–1 composite weighted 50% eligibility, 30% CEP share, 20% NSLP share — a visualization and ranking aid, not a direct measurement. See methodology.

County-level hotspots

Top five counties across 30 in Alaska.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Prince of Wales-Hyder 135.5%
  2. 2 Dillingham 102.5%
  3. 3 Kusilvak 99.2%
  4. 4 Northwest Arctic 94.1%
  5. 5 Bethel 93.9%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Bethel 100%
  2. 2 Dillingham 100%
  3. 3 Kusilvak 100%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Anchorage 43K
  2. 2 Fairbanks North Star 23K
  3. 3 Matanuska-Susitna 18K
  4. 4 Kenai Peninsula 8K
  5. 5 Bethel 5K

Every county in Alaska

All 30 counties with school counts, enrollment, certification mix, CEP adoption, and the SAIPE 5–17 poverty backdrop.

County Schools Enrollment Free/reduced CEP Direct cert 5–17 poverty Access
Aleutians East 4 205 0.0% — 2.9% 19.3% 0.00
Aleutians West 5 420 16.0% 0% 5.0% 5.3% 0.16
Anchorage 92 43,395 40.8% 44% 21.7% 8.9% 0.50
Bethel 39 4,685 93.9% 100% 58.9% 34.0% 0.96
Bristol Bay 4 130 66.1% 100% 32.3% 18.9% 0.73
Chugach 9 1,013 45.7% 40% 26.0% 7.2% 0.46
Copper River 6 453 37.1% 33% 42.4% 18.1% 0.39
Denali 4 924 0.0% — 1.3% 11.0% 0.00
Dillingham 10 1,030 102.5% 100% 68.0% 28.8% 1.01
Fairbanks North Star 32 22,544 18.1% 0% 11.1% 7.6% 0.27
Haines 3 272 54.8% 50% 26.5% 13.7% 0.56
Hoonah-Angoon 6 291 25.8% 100% 23.4% 27.1% 0.46
Juneau City and 13 4,169 19.8% 0% 12.0% 7.4% 0.28
Kenai Peninsula 39 8,410 28.9% 9% 19.6% 11.3% 0.34
Ketchikan Gateway 8 1,942 34.4% 0% 15.4% 10.4% 0.32
Kodiak Island 12 2,152 54.2% 45% 26.4% 8.1% 0.59
Kusilvak 13 2,564 99.2% 100% 65.0% 35.2% 1.00
Lake and Peninsula 10 320 86.3% 100% 56.3% 25.5% 0.93
Matanuska-Susitna 45 18,314 34.5% 35% 22.7% 8.6% 0.44
Nome 19 2,493 92.1% 100% 51.3% 21.3% 0.95
North Slope 10 1,927 36.8% 38% 20.8% 11.4% 0.46
Northwest Arctic 13 2,009 94.1% 100% 51.5% 20.1% 0.96
Petersburg 3 476 60.7% 67% 32.8% 9.3% 0.70
Prince of Wales-Hyder 20 1,560 135.5% 100% 26.7% 19.0% 1.13
Sitka City and 6 1,499 45.2% 20% 23.5% 8.4% 0.45
Skagway 1 145 0.0% — 2.1% 8.6% 0.00
Southeast Fairbanks 12 1,345 33.8% 67% 24.4% 13.4% 0.52
Wrangell City and 3 271 0.0% — 1.1% 14.8% 0.00
Yakutat City and 2 106 0.0% — 2.8% 20.0% 0.00
Yukon-Koyukuk 28 3,183 26.0% 100% 15.2% 22.7% 0.57

Alaska school meals guide

How free and reduced-price school lunch eligibility works, application steps, and what to do if your child's school is not in CEP.

School meals guide

Summer meals

When the school year ends, NSLP and CEP stop. The Summer Food Service Program and Summer EBT fill the gap for the 51,725 children who rely on school meals in Alaska.

Summer meals guide

Families with children

SNAP, WIC, Head Start, and the full federal-program stack for households with kids — the assistance ecosystem around the school cafeteria.

Families guide

Alaska child poverty

The sibling atlas — county-level child poverty across Alaska. Free/reduced eligibility and child poverty track each other closely but not perfectly.

Alaska child poverty atlas

Alaska pantries

Verified food pantries, food banks, and meal programs across Alaska — open weeknights, weekends, and through the summer gap.

Alaska pantry directory

Methodology

How we aggregated NCES Common Core of Data school-level records to counties, proxied CEP from lunch_program == 2, and layered SAIPE school-age poverty — plus the access-score formula.

Full methodology