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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Louisiana

62% certified free/reduced

Across 1,250 public schools serving 696,300 students, 61.8% of Louisiana students are certified free or reduced-price. 1,043 schools (83% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 0.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

696K

Students enrolled

1,250

Public schools (CCD)

1,043

CEP / Provision 2 schools

65

Counties in atlas

Louisiana 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

Louisiana at a glance

Free/reduced

61.8%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

83%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

0.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

100%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

24.3%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.76

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 65 in Louisiana.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 St. Helena 91.3%
  2. 2 Madison 89.3%
  3. 3 Tensas 88.0%
  4. 4 East Carroll 87.8%
  5. 5 Natchitoches 86.7%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Acadia 100%
  2. 2 Allen 100%
  3. 3 Assumption 100%
  4. 4 Beauregard 100%
  5. 5 Bienville 100%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 East Baton Rouge 66K
  2. 2 Jefferson 51K
  3. 3 Orleans 47K
  4. 4 St. Tammany 39K
  5. 5 Caddo 35K

Every county in Louisiana

All 65 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
05139 1 211 83.9% 0% 0.0% — 0.62
Acadia 26 9,424 67.3% 100% 0.0% 30.7% 0.84
Allen 11 4,027 60.1% 100% 0.0% 22.7% 0.80
Ascension 31 24,683 49.2% 42% 0.0% 12.4% 0.57
Assumption 9 2,942 65.5% 100% 0.0% 26.3% 0.83
Avoyelles 11 5,475 64.7% 91% 0.0% 33.3% 0.80
Beauregard 12 5,959 49.2% 100% 0.0% 19.3% 0.75
Bienville 8 1,948 59.9% 100% 0.0% 33.9% 0.80
Bossier 33 23,578 53.8% 85% 0.0% 18.4% 0.72
Caddo 55 35,280 64.5% 4% 0.0% 30.0% 0.53
Calcasieu 58 31,649 57.8% 5% 0.0% 22.5% 0.50
Caldwell 5 1,427 66.8% 100% 0.0% 27.6% 0.83
Cameron 5 1,153 42.1% 100% 0.0% 19.9% 0.71
Catahoula 5 983 49.9% 100% 0.0% 42.7% 0.75
Claiborne 6 1,712 82.2% 100% 0.0% 35.0% 0.91
Concordia 10 3,594 77.0% 100% 0.0% 33.2% 0.88
De Soto 9 5,135 52.0% 100% 0.0% 23.7% 0.76
East Baton Rouge 109 65,963 62.4% 80% 0.0% 23.9% 0.75
East Carroll 3 785 87.8% 100% 0.0% 50.6% 0.94
East Feliciana 6 1,743 51.5% 100% 0.0% 22.5% 0.76
Evangeline 11 5,175 64.7% 100% 0.0% 29.2% 0.82
Franklin 6 2,685 77.1% 100% 0.0% 35.3% 0.89
Grant 8 2,893 67.0% 100% 0.0% 24.3% 0.83
Iberia 21 10,445 65.6% 100% 0.0% 31.6% 0.83
Iberville 9 4,899 72.7% 100% 0.0% 30.6% 0.86
Jackson 5 2,078 61.4% 100% 0.0% 26.0% 0.81
Jefferson 72 51,118 57.6% 94% 0.0% 22.3% 0.77
Jefferson Davis 12 5,538 58.2% 100% 0.0% 22.7% 0.79
Lafayette 44 34,872 59.4% 95% 0.0% 20.3% 0.78
Lafourche 31 14,110 63.8% 84% 0.0% 25.8% 0.77
LaSalle 9 2,556 27.5% 100% 0.0% 24.1% 0.64
Lincoln 13 6,504 51.1% 8% 0.0% 25.9% 0.48
Livingston 43 27,843 66.0% 100% 0.0% 17.2% 0.83
Madison 4 1,239 89.3% 100% 0.0% 47.1% 0.95
Morehouse 5 3,322 5.9% 100% 0.0% 42.8% 0.53
Natchitoches 12 5,025 86.7% 83% 0.0% 30.2% 0.88
Orleans 69 47,399 72.8% 83% 0.0% 34.0% 0.81
Ouachita 55 27,390 64.9% 89% 0.0% 28.7% 0.79
Plaquemines 9 4,872 58.1% 56% 0.0% 19.1% 0.66
Pointe Coupee 5 2,590 69.7% 100% 0.0% 28.2% 0.85
Rapides 42 22,469 74.9% 100% 0.0% 24.7% 0.87
Red River 3 1,221 85.1% 100% 0.0% 36.0% 0.93
Richland 11 3,144 58.8% 100% 0.0% 38.9% 0.79
Sabine 10 3,947 62.0% 100% 0.0% 24.1% 0.81
St. Bernard 11 7,963 60.5% 100% 0.0% 23.1% 0.80
St. Charles 15 9,293 47.9% 100% 0.0% 18.1% 0.74
St. Helena 3 1,082 91.3% 100% 0.0% 35.8% 0.96
St. James 6 3,421 53.0% 100% 0.0% 23.1% 0.77
St. John the Baptist 10 5,429 71.0% 100% 0.0% 26.7% 0.85
St. Landry 34 12,624 75.5% 100% 0.0% 27.3% 0.88
St. Martin 15 7,216 72.5% 100% 0.0% 26.0% 0.86
St. Mary 22 8,311 71.0% 100% 0.0% 29.3% 0.85
St. Tammany 56 39,057 46.1% 95% 0.0% 13.3% 0.71
Tangipahoa 31 20,363 67.3% 100% 0.0% 25.2% 0.84
Tensas 2 341 88.0% 100% 0.0% 43.7% 0.94
Terrebonne 29 15,594 62.6% 100% 0.0% 21.0% 0.81
Union 4 2,802 55.6% 75% 0.0% 28.2% 0.70
Vermilion 22 10,569 59.7% 100% 0.0% 23.7% 0.80
Vernon 18 9,075 60.6% 100% 0.0% 21.2% 0.80
Washington 14 6,580 57.8% 100% 0.0% 32.7% 0.79
Webster 14 5,359 54.6% 100% 0.0% 28.4% 0.77
West Baton Rouge 10 4,378 79.2% 100% 0.0% 19.1% 0.90
West Carroll 3 1,699 71.6% 100% 0.0% 30.0% 0.86
West Feliciana 4 2,216 44.8% 75% 0.0% 17.7% 0.65
Winn 5 1,923 73.3% 100% 0.0% 29.1% 0.87

Louisiana 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 430,070 children who rely on school meals in Louisiana.

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

Louisiana child poverty

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

Louisiana child poverty atlas

Louisiana pantries

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

Louisiana 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