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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Hawaii

46% certified free/reduced

Across 293 public schools serving 169,178 students, 46.1% of Hawaii students are certified free or reduced-price. 104 schools (38% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 25.7% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

169K

Students enrolled

293

Public schools (CCD)

104

CEP / Provision 2 schools

4

Counties in atlas

Hawaii 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

Hawaii at a glance

Free/reduced

46.1%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

38%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

25.7%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

94%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

11.5%

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 4 in Hawaii.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Hawaii 59.3%
  2. 2 Maui 51.5%
  3. 3 Kauai 46.8%
  4. 4 Honolulu 41.8%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Hawaii 82%
  2. 2 Honolulu 28%
  3. 3 Maui 27%
  4. 4 Kauai 24%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Honolulu 112K
  2. 2 Hawaii 27K
  3. 3 Maui 21K
  4. 4 Kauai 9K

Every county in Hawaii

All 4 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
Hawaii 55 27,203 59.3% 82% 40.1% 20.1% 0.73
Honolulu 183 112,047 41.8% 28% 22.1% 9.7% 0.48
Kauai 21 9,408 46.8% 24% 26.3% 11.5% 0.47
Maui 34 20,520 51.5% 27% 26.3% 10.9% 0.53

Hawaii 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 77,949 children who rely on school meals in Hawaii.

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

Hawaii child poverty

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

Hawaii child poverty atlas

Hawaii pantries

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

Hawaii 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