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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Delaware

0% certified free/reduced

Delaware reports 198 public schools serving 129,209 students. Per-student free and reduced-price certification counts are suppressed in the Common Core of Data for Delaware — see the methodology note below. 92 schools (47% of NSLP participants) operate under Community Eligibility Provision.

129K

Students enrolled

198

Public schools (CCD)

92

CEP / Provision 2 schools

3

Counties in atlas

Note on Delaware's free/reduced certification counts

Delaware is one of several states where per-student free and reduced-price certification counts are not reliably reported in the 2023–24 Common Core of Data. This can happen when a state operates universal-free meal policies or relies almost entirely on Community Eligibility — students are not individually certified because the school feeds everyone at no charge. School and CEP counts on this page are accurate; the eligibility rate reads as 0% because the underlying per-student counts are suppressed, not because no students qualify. See methodology for details.

Delaware 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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Higher

Delaware at a glance

Free/reduced

0.0%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

47%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

27.3%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

99%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

14.7%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.34

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 3 in Delaware.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Kent 0.0%
  2. 2 New Castle 0.0%
  3. 3 Sussex 0.0%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 New Castle 50%
  2. 2 Kent 46%
  3. 3 Sussex 38%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 New Castle 72K
  2. 2 Sussex 30K
  3. 3 Kent 28K

Every county in Delaware

All 3 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
Kent 46 28,033 0.0% 46% 29.6% 15.7% 0.34
New Castle 110 71,541 0.0% 50% 26.7% 13.8% 0.35
Sussex 42 29,635 0.0% 38% 26.6% 16.0% 0.31

Delaware 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 0 children who rely on school meals in Delaware.

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

Delaware child poverty

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

Delaware child poverty atlas

Delaware pantries

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

Delaware 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