Skip to main content

PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Colorado

44% certified free/reduced

Across 1,765 public schools serving 836,991 students, 44.4% of Colorado students are certified free or reduced-price. 527 schools (32% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 0.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

837K

Students enrolled

1,765

Public schools (CCD)

527

CEP / Provision 2 schools

64

Counties in atlas

Colorado by county

← Back to national atlas

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.

Loading county map…

Lower
Higher

Colorado at a glance

Free/reduced

44.4%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

32%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

0.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

93%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

10.4%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.50

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 64 in Colorado.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Costilla 86.3%
  2. 2 Saguache 84.9%
  3. 3 Huerfano 79.0%
  4. 4 Otero 72.2%
  5. 5 Alamosa 71.6%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Alamosa 100%
  2. 2 Saguache 100%
  3. 3 San Juan 100%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 El Paso 111K
  2. 2 Arapahoe 105K
  3. 3 Denver 85K
  4. 4 Adams 83K
  5. 5 Jefferson 78K

Every county in Colorado

All 64 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
Adams 150 82,931 60.1% 40% 0.0% 12.1% 0.60
Alamosa 7 2,290 71.6% 100% 0.0% 25.3% 0.77
Arapahoe 155 105,341 49.5% 39% 0.0% 11.5% 0.56
Archuleta 4 1,559 59.8% 25% 0.0% 17.5% 0.57
Baca 11 637 68.3% 36% 0.0% 28.1% 0.65
Bent 6 675 63.1% 0% 0.0% 25.9% 0.38
Boulder 80 41,462 29.1% 3% 0.0% 7.2% 0.34
Broomfield 16 11,785 24.6% 6% 0.0% 4.7% 0.34
Chaffee 10 2,408 32.5% 0% 0.0% 11.4% 0.32
Cheyenne 4 276 51.4% 0% 0.0% 18.5% 0.46
Clear Creek 5 652 27.9% 0% 0.0% 10.7% 0.34
Conejos 9 1,502 65.6% 33% 0.0% 23.3% 0.63
Costilla 2 488 86.3% 100% 0.0% 38.8% 0.93
Crowley 2 332 67.8% 100% 0.0% 29.9% 0.84
Custer 3 345 53.3% 0% 0.0% 23.2% 0.47
Delta 14 4,269 57.9% 31% 0.0% 17.2% 0.57
Denver 177 85,411 61.6% 67% 0.0% 14.4% 0.71
Dolores 2 252 56.0% 0% 0.0% 15.0% 0.48
Douglas 89 63,370 16.7% 2% 0.0% 2.8% 0.28
Eagle 21 6,863 40.8% 6% 0.0% 6.7% 0.38
El Paso 219 111,289 40.6% 35% 0.0% 8.8% 0.49
Elbert 17 3,361 29.5% 13% 0.0% 6.4% 0.36
Fremont 13 4,720 57.8% 77% 0.0% 20.5% 0.72
Garfield 26 10,594 44.4% 0% 0.0% 9.8% 0.38
Gilpin 2 390 37.2% 0% 0.0% 7.3% 0.39
Grand 6 1,695 36.1% 0% 0.0% 8.8% 0.38
Gunnison 7 2,065 33.0% 0% 0.0% 8.4% 0.34
Hinsdale 1 76 46.1% — 0.0% 17.3% 0.23
Huerfano 5 696 79.0% 60% 0.0% 26.8% 0.78
Jackson 1 155 29.7% — 0.0% 15.3% 0.15
Jefferson 142 78,240 29.4% 15% 0.0% 7.6% 0.37
Kiowa 5 247 63.6% 0% 0.0% 17.7% 0.52
Kit Carson 9 1,389 62.2% 44% 0.0% 16.1% 0.64
La Plata 22 7,537 33.8% 5% 0.0% 12.3% 0.36
Lake 3 945 49.2% 0% 0.0% 15.7% 0.45
Larimer 88 46,905 35.0% 28% 0.0% 7.5% 0.45
Las Animas 12 1,835 56.0% 45% 0.0% 23.4% 0.60
Lincoln 5 733 49.7% 0% 0.0% 16.3% 0.45
Logan 13 2,630 49.4% 23% 0.0% 15.3% 0.52
Mesa 48 20,926 50.4% 44% 0.0% 12.1% 0.56
Mineral 1 95 49.5% 0% 0.0% 18.0% 0.45
Moffat 7 1,915 59.6% 0% 0.0% 12.0% 0.50
Montezuma 18 3,627 59.0% 53% 0.0% 19.9% 0.64
Montrose 16 5,990 59.1% 19% 0.0% 13.4% 0.55
Morgan 16 5,586 61.4% 31% 0.0% 13.5% 0.60
Otero 14 2,876 72.2% 57% 0.0% 24.6% 0.73
Ouray 6 499 28.7% 0% 0.0% 9.2% 0.34
Park 8 1,316 34.4% 0% 0.0% 10.3% 0.35
Phillips 4 814 52.8% 0% 0.0% 15.8% 0.46
Pitkin 7 2,363 17.8% 0% 0.0% 5.1% 0.15
Prowers 11 2,198 71.6% 73% 0.0% 23.1% 0.78
Pueblo 58 24,206 68.5% 74% 0.0% 16.6% 0.75
Rio Blanco 5 1,222 43.3% 0% 0.0% 10.2% 0.42
Rio Grande 9 1,570 64.2% 44% 0.0% 26.5% 0.65
Routt 14 3,473 20.7% 0% 0.0% 5.6% 0.27
Saguache 7 939 84.9% 100% 0.0% 27.0% 0.90
San Juan 3 75 61.3% 100% 0.0% 21.9% 0.81
San Miguel 5 994 29.7% 0% 0.0% 8.0% 0.35
Sedgwick 4 363 56.8% 25% 0.0% 20.3% 0.56
Summit 8 3,490 41.2% 0% 0.0% 6.4% 0.41
Teller 8 2,187 40.9% 25% 0.0% 11.7% 0.48
Washington 11 906 54.6% 0% 0.0% 16.6% 0.47
Weld 106 59,271 46.9% 20% 0.0% 9.9% 0.49
Yuma 8 1,740 62.6% 14% 0.0% 15.0% 0.53

Colorado 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 371,538 children who rely on school meals in Colorado.

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

Colorado child poverty

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

Colorado child poverty atlas

Colorado pantries

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

Colorado 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