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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in California

61% certified free/reduced

Across 8,989 public schools serving 5,637,205 students, 61.4% of California students are certified free or reduced-price. 5,247 schools (71% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 40.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

5.6M

Students enrolled

8,989

Public schools (CCD)

5,247

CEP / Provision 2 schools

58

Counties in atlas

California 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

California at a glance

Free/reduced

61.4%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

71%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

40.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

82%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

14.6%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.68

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 58 in California.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Madera 81.4%
  2. 2 Merced 78.8%
  3. 3 Colusa 78.4%
  4. 4 Kern 76.5%
  5. 5 Imperial 76.3%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Colusa 100%
  2. 2 Del Norte 100%
  3. 3 Lake 100%
  4. 4 Plumas 100%
  5. 5 San Francisco 96%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Los Angeles 1.2M
  2. 2 San Diego 459K
  3. 3 Orange 426K
  4. 4 Riverside 410K
  5. 5 San Bernardino 383K

Every county in California

All 58 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
Alameda 339 205,664 47.1% 42% 27.1% 9.2% 0.51
Alpine 2 66 60.6% 0% 54.5% 22.4% 0.40
Amador 10 3,974 41.7% 78% 38.0% 13.5% 0.62
Butte 76 28,236 61.6% 72% 47.3% 18.4% 0.69
Calaveras 14 4,986 50.0% 69% 42.3% 15.2% 0.64
Colusa 16 4,744 78.4% 100% 44.4% 13.6% 0.75
Contra Costa 247 163,552 39.1% 58% 26.9% 9.2% 0.52
Del Norte 12 3,958 67.4% 100% 52.5% 19.6% 0.82
El Dorado 58 33,102 32.6% 12% 24.5% 7.3% 0.34
Fresno 300 199,544 75.3% 88% 54.5% 23.0% 0.83
Glenn 16 5,771 75.4% 77% 49.9% 16.9% 0.77
Humboldt 74 16,585 61.5% 65% 47.7% 17.8% 0.67
Imperial 59 35,745 76.3% 86% 51.1% 20.7% 0.81
Inyo 14 2,513 61.0% 38% 42.5% 13.2% 0.53
Kern 249 193,610 76.5% 89% 54.4% 23.6% 0.82
Kings 52 28,200 75.2% 87% 51.9% 20.2% 0.79
Lake 24 9,062 72.3% 100% 56.5% 21.6% 0.76
Lassen 21 3,698 55.5% 46% 37.6% 16.6% 0.54
Los Angeles 1,966 1,228,231 68.9% 80% 44.0% 17.5% 0.76
Madera 58 30,721 81.4% 90% 58.1% 23.6% 0.85
Marin 64 29,295 31.9% 26% 23.1% 7.8% 0.42
Mariposa 11 1,741 68.0% 88% 46.4% 22.2% 0.75
Mendocino 49 12,273 73.8% 92% 49.8% 18.7% 0.81
Merced 94 56,714 78.8% 93% 56.7% 22.8% 0.83
Modoc 6 884 62.9% 75% 53.2% 26.7% 0.67
Mono 10 1,478 49.1% 0% 28.0% 10.5% 0.43
Monterey 127 72,500 75.5% 74% 54.0% 19.6% 0.75
Napa 33 17,730 62.6% 80% 35.3% 8.2% 0.70
Nevada 39 12,784 43.7% 17% 33.2% 12.5% 0.39
Orange 587 426,470 53.8% 64% 33.4% 10.7% 0.64
Placer 104 67,405 34.8% 10% 20.9% 5.4% 0.34
Plumas 9 2,020 59.1% 100% 38.1% 17.0% 0.80
Riverside 468 410,016 70.3% 76% 41.9% 13.1% 0.76
Sacramento 344 248,997 61.1% 77% 39.4% 13.8% 0.72
San Benito 23 11,460 57.1% 64% 34.9% 10.4% 0.60
San Bernardino 513 383,250 71.5% 88% 47.3% 17.7% 0.81
San Diego 694 458,727 52.0% 69% 31.8% 11.4% 0.63
San Francisco 120 53,908 52.1% 96% 34.7% 10.9% 0.72
San Joaquin 217 144,300 65.8% 85% 42.5% 15.5% 0.74
San Luis Obispo 67 31,390 53.0% 63% 30.5% 11.2% 0.58
San Mateo 158 80,813 32.5% 18% 22.8% 7.2% 0.36
Santa Barbara 111 65,847 67.0% 66% 45.2% 17.7% 0.67
Santa Clara 377 226,890 35.3% 29% 21.9% 7.0% 0.39
Santa Cruz 72 35,419 52.2% 63% 35.2% 14.3% 0.59
Shasta 71 25,736 56.8% 65% 43.6% 14.5% 0.65
Sierra 4 398 43.2% 0% 30.4% 13.9% 0.32
Siskiyou 37 5,796 63.6% 58% 47.2% 20.0% 0.66
Solano 90 58,264 55.8% 76% 33.8% 10.8% 0.68
Sonoma 152 61,469 48.5% 37% 30.8% 8.6% 0.46
Stanislaus 164 103,669 69.7% 84% 48.6% 14.7% 0.75
Sutter 35 22,588 58.2% 78% 43.9% 17.6% 0.68
Tehama 32 10,661 73.3% 68% 52.3% 18.4% 0.73
Trinity 13 1,451 70.4% 88% 42.1% 25.7% 0.74
Tulare 167 99,605 72.9% 94% 56.7% 22.3% 0.83
Tuolumne 24 5,595 48.2% 29% 37.6% 13.4% 0.47
Ventura 209 143,435 57.3% 47% 37.2% 12.3% 0.59
Yolo 54 29,299 56.0% 58% 33.5% 10.4% 0.62
Yuba 33 14,966 63.4% 80% 49.1% 20.5% 0.71

California 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 3,460,538 children who rely on school meals in California.

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

California child poverty

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

California child poverty atlas

California pantries

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

California 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