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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in New York

55% certified free/reduced

Across 4,581 public schools serving 2,422,831 students, 54.9% of New York students are certified free or reduced-price. 1,933 schools (62% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 0.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

2.4M

Students enrolled

4,581

Public schools (CCD)

1,933

CEP / Provision 2 schools

62

Counties in atlas

New York 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

New York at a glance

Free/reduced

54.9%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

62%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

0.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

68%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

17.9%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.60

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 62 in New York.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Bronx 87.9%
  2. 2 Kings 75.0%
  3. 3 Queens 74.7%
  4. 4 New York 68.0%
  5. 5 Richmond 64.8%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Allegany 100%
  2. 2 Orleans 100%
  3. 3 Oswego 100%
  4. 4 Richmond 100%
  5. 5 Schoharie 100%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Kings 276K
  2. 2 Queens 252K
  3. 3 Suffolk 220K
  4. 4 Nassau 199K
  5. 5 Bronx 187K

Every county in New York

All 62 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
Albany 70 38,756 43.8% 49% 0.0% 14.3% 0.56
Allegany 18 5,667 46.6% 100% 0.0% 16.6% 0.72
Bronx 432 187,108 87.9% 93% 0.0% 34.4% 0.79
Broome 50 23,341 48.1% 80% 0.0% 17.3% 0.66
Cattaraugus 28 10,922 50.3% 82% 0.0% 23.5% 0.70
Cayuga 20 8,353 52.0% 95% 0.0% 17.3% 0.74
Chautauqua 50 17,438 56.5% 72% 0.0% 21.4% 0.69
Chemung 23 10,815 49.1% 70% 0.0% 21.4% 0.65
Chenango 22 6,843 49.4% 95% 0.0% 18.6% 0.73
Clinton 27 10,580 45.9% 85% 0.0% 14.2% 0.69
Columbia 15 6,044 48.3% 54% 0.0% 17.8% 0.58
Cortland 17 5,464 49.6% 59% 0.0% 15.2% 0.62
Delaware 20 5,284 44.1% 90% 0.0% 19.1% 0.69
Dutchess 73 36,356 39.5% 29% 0.0% 8.5% 0.47
Erie 208 118,457 50.2% 58% 0.0% 17.5% 0.61
Essex 16 3,835 46.9% 73% 0.0% 15.9% 0.64
Franklin 19 6,797 55.2% 95% 0.0% 17.1% 0.76
Fulton 16 6,892 52.1% 93% 0.0% 19.9% 0.73
Genesee 19 7,497 46.9% 44% 0.0% 12.8% 0.56
Greene 16 5,114 38.6% 57% 0.0% 19.6% 0.54
Hamilton 4 380 33.2% 50% 0.0% 12.3% 0.42
Herkimer 24 9,360 51.1% 73% 0.0% 15.7% 0.66
Jefferson 38 16,628 51.8% 65% 0.0% 18.0% 0.65
Kings 537 275,915 75.0% 94% 0.0% 26.7% 0.72
Lewis 13 4,161 48.1% 31% 0.0% 15.0% 0.53
Livingston 20 7,260 40.7% 65% 0.0% 11.4% 0.60
Madison 25 8,447 40.1% 60% 0.0% 12.5% 0.58
Monroe 174 99,320 46.5% 48% 0.0% 16.1% 0.54
Montgomery 15 6,788 49.3% 77% 0.0% 20.9% 0.65
Nassau 310 199,457 29.3% 23% 0.0% 6.0% 0.39
New York 320 141,079 68.0% 94% 0.0% 20.2% 0.69
Niagara 50 26,279 48.8% 81% 0.0% 18.3% 0.65
Oneida 67 31,047 51.2% 58% 0.0% 18.5% 0.62
Onondaga 120 65,457 50.2% 61% 0.0% 18.3% 0.63
Ontario 27 14,340 41.3% 52% 0.0% 9.3% 0.56
Orange 79 56,328 44.7% 43% 0.0% 17.7% 0.54
Orleans 12 5,403 53.9% 100% 0.0% 15.6% 0.77
Oswego 36 17,378 52.2% 100% 0.0% 18.6% 0.76
Otsego 21 6,353 36.4% 89% 0.0% 17.3% 0.62
Putnam 21 13,005 29.4% 0% 0.0% 6.9% 0.33
Queens 364 251,971 74.7% 96% 0.0% 17.0% 0.71
Rensselaer 39 18,711 45.2% 47% 0.0% 15.1% 0.54
Richmond 81 59,047 64.8% 100% 0.0% 17.6% 0.69
Rockland 61 39,333 45.5% 46% 0.0% 22.4% 0.54
Saratoga 50 30,264 27.9% 21% 0.0% 7.9% 0.39
Schenectady 40 21,710 44.9% 50% 0.0% 19.0% 0.56
Schoharie 11 3,651 46.0% 100% 0.0% 16.3% 0.73
Schuyler 6 1,858 43.0% 100% 0.0% 18.9% 0.71
Seneca 11 3,644 52.5% 100% 0.0% 21.7% 0.76
St. Lawrence 37 13,652 50.2% 79% 0.0% 19.7% 0.67
Steuben 32 13,293 47.1% 84% 0.0% 19.0% 0.69
Suffolk 334 219,847 40.6% 41% 0.0% 7.8% 0.51
Sullivan 19 9,004 56.3% 89% 0.0% 20.9% 0.75
Tioga 20 7,165 44.1% 93% 0.0% 16.0% 0.64
Tompkins 29 9,873 33.5% 67% 0.0% 11.0% 0.53
Ulster 41 19,817 45.0% 56% 0.0% 12.5% 0.59
Warren 19 7,960 41.4% 58% 0.0% 14.5% 0.58
Washington 24 7,745 45.5% 96% 0.0% 15.1% 0.71
Wayne 36 12,674 49.6% 67% 0.0% 12.0% 0.65
Westchester 236 139,352 34.1% 50% 0.0% 10.8% 0.45
Wyoming 13 4,196 41.9% 46% 0.0% 12.8% 0.55
Yates 6 2,116 54.5% 100% 0.0% 18.6% 0.77

New York 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 1,330,209 children who rely on school meals in New York.

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

New York child poverty

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

New York child poverty atlas

New York pantries

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

New York 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