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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Nevada

80% certified free/reduced

Across 687 public schools serving 472,980 students, 80.4% of Nevada students are certified free or reduced-price. 495 schools (78% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 41.7% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

473K

Students enrolled

687

Public schools (CCD)

495

CEP / Provision 2 schools

17

Counties in atlas

Nevada 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

Nevada at a glance

Free/reduced

80.4%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

78%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

41.7%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

92%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

15.1%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.82

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 17 in Nevada.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Esmeralda 100.0%
  2. 2 Mineral 100.0%
  3. 3 Nye 99.7%
  4. 4 Lyon 91.6%
  5. 5 Clark 88.3%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Churchill 100%
  2. 2 Esmeralda 100%
  3. 3 Mineral 100%
  4. 4 Nye 100%
  5. 5 Clark 93%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Clark 357K
  2. 2 Washoe 66K
  3. 3 Elko 10K
  4. 4 Lyon 9K
  5. 5 Carson 7K

Every county in Nevada

All 17 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
Carson 11 7,439 40.8% 70% 39.1% 12.9% 0.60
Churchill 7 4,052 81.0% 100% 0.4% 13.7% 0.88
Clark 420 356,897 88.3% 93% 45.0% 16.0% 0.91
Douglas 11 4,909 32.3% 0% 28.2% 12.1% 0.36
Elko 33 10,151 48.7% 36% 28.6% 11.2% 0.52
Esmeralda 3 78 100.0% 100% 42.3% 19.0% 1.00
Eureka 3 325 0.0% — 0.0% 12.3% 0.00
Humboldt 13 3,349 60.1% 69% 39.4% 12.9% 0.71
Lander 4 1,077 45.0% 0% 29.6% 12.2% 0.38
Lincoln 8 916 39.4% 0% 30.1% 20.2% 0.40
Lyon 18 9,047 91.6% 89% 28.5% 11.8% 0.92
Mineral 4 594 100.0% 100% 45.3% 21.9% 1.00
Nye 21 5,507 99.7% 100% 55.9% 22.9% 1.00
Pershing 4 636 72.3% 25% 36.3% 17.8% 0.64
Storey 4 400 18.0% 50% 8.5% 9.5% 0.34
Washoe 115 66,193 50.4% 49% 31.7% 11.2% 0.58
White Pine 8 1,410 80.8% 67% 26.5% 13.6% 0.75

Nevada 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 380,459 children who rely on school meals in Nevada.

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

Nevada child poverty

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

Nevada child poverty atlas

Nevada pantries

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

Nevada 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