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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Massachusetts

0% certified free/reduced

Massachusetts reports 1,742 public schools serving 866,843 students. Per-student free and reduced-price certification counts are suppressed in the Common Core of Data for Massachusetts — see the methodology note below. 887 schools (51% of NSLP participants) operate under Community Eligibility Provision.

867K

Students enrolled

1,742

Public schools (CCD)

887

CEP / Provision 2 schools

14

Counties in atlas

Note on Massachusetts's free/reduced certification counts

Massachusetts 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.

Massachusetts 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

Massachusetts at a glance

Free/reduced

0.0%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

51%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

41.6%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

99%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

12.3%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.35

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 14 in Massachusetts.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Barnstable 0.0%
  2. 2 Berkshire 0.0%
  3. 3 Bristol 0.0%
  4. 4 Dukes 0.0%
  5. 5 Essex 0.0%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Suffolk 88%
  2. 2 Hampden 79%
  3. 3 Berkshire 77%
  4. 4 Franklin 72%
  5. 5 Barnstable 59%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Middlesex 205K
  2. 2 Worcester 114K
  3. 3 Essex 105K
  4. 4 Norfolk 97K
  5. 5 Plymouth 75K

Every county in Massachusetts

All 14 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
Barnstable 47 20,902 0.0% 59% 41.3% 11.3% 0.37
Berkshire 45 14,056 0.0% 77% 51.2% 15.1% 0.43
Bristol 130 72,782 0.0% 52% 49.2% 17.9% 0.36
Dukes 8 2,330 0.0% 57% 38.4% 10.8% 0.35
Essex 209 104,937 0.0% 54% 46.3% 12.9% 0.36
Franklin 33 8,140 0.0% 72% 40.8% 13.0% 0.41
Hampden 156 65,346 0.0% 79% 63.8% 25.7% 0.44
Hampshire 44 15,985 0.0% 53% 33.1% 10.2% 0.36
Middlesex 367 204,557 0.0% 32% 29.8% 7.4% 0.29
Nantucket 4 1,683 0.0% 50% 34.6% 6.0% 0.35
Norfolk 187 96,843 0.0% 33% 24.1% 6.4% 0.30
Plymouth 131 74,793 0.0% 36% 35.2% 8.0% 0.31
Suffolk 145 70,692 0.0% 88% 68.7% 21.6% 0.46
Worcester 236 113,797 0.0% 51% 43.4% 11.6% 0.35

Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts.

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

Massachusetts child poverty

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

Massachusetts child poverty atlas

Massachusetts pantries

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

Massachusetts 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