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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in North Dakota

30% certified free/reduced

Across 501 public schools serving 116,874 students, 30.1% of North Dakota students are certified free or reduced-price. 38 schools (8% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 12.4% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

117K

Students enrolled

501

Public schools (CCD)

38

CEP / Provision 2 schools

52

Counties in atlas

North Dakota 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

North Dakota at a glance

Free/reduced

30.1%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

8%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

12.4%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

89%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

9.4%

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 52 in North Dakota.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Sioux 100.0%
  2. 2 Rolette 92.2%
  3. 3 Benson 77.9%
  4. 4 Grant 50.0%
  5. 5 Ramsey 42.4%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Sioux 100%
  2. 2 Benson 67%
  3. 3 Rolette 67%
  4. 4 Burleigh 17%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Cass 28K
  2. 2 Burleigh 14K
  3. 3 Ward 10K
  4. 4 Grand Forks 9K
  5. 5 Morton 5K

Every county in North Dakota

All 52 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
Adams 2 290 22.4% 0% 10.3% 12.5% 0.31
Barnes 7 1,305 33.9% 0% 13.5% 10.0% 0.37
Benson 12 983 77.9% 67% 38.0% 27.0% 0.79
Billings 2 105 6.7% 0% 5.7% 14.7% 0.23
Bottineau 6 915 28.4% 0% 13.4% 10.5% 0.34
Bowman 6 648 19.0% 0% 5.1% 10.3% 0.26
Burke 6 414 21.5% 0% 7.7% 8.9% 0.31
Burleigh 36 14,363 23.0% 17% 9.9% 6.5% 0.33
Cass 63 27,542 27.7% 11% 12.1% 7.6% 0.35
Cavalier 4 528 18.6% 0% 8.3% 10.4% 0.29
Dickey 6 735 16.7% 0% 8.6% 12.1% 0.22
Divide 2 365 26.0% 0% 7.1% 10.9% 0.33
Dunn 3 669 24.2% 50% 5.5% 15.1% 0.40
Eddy 2 338 32.3% 0% 10.7% 10.2% 0.36
Emmons 6 495 31.9% 0% 10.7% 14.2% 0.36
Foster 3 670 18.1% 0% 9.0% 9.2% 0.29
Golden Valley 3 312 34.9% 0% 9.9% 14.2% 0.37
Grand Forks 29 9,477 30.1% 4% 15.3% 8.7% 0.35
Grant 3 228 50.0% 0% 15.8% 20.4% 0.45
Griggs 3 368 38.6% 0% 8.7% 15.1% 0.39
Hettinger 4 513 36.1% 0% 13.7% 14.5% 0.38
Kidder 2 392 35.7% 0% 13.0% 15.2% 0.38
LaMoure 9 730 28.0% 0% 7.0% 9.1% 0.34
Logan 4 349 31.2% 0% 6.9% 18.0% 0.36
McHenry 10 935 28.8% 0% 11.7% 13.9% 0.30
McIntosh 6 404 38.9% 0% 8.2% 15.3% 0.39
McKenzie 13 2,799 31.1% 0% 6.1% 7.9% 0.26
McLean 14 1,780 22.9% 0% 7.5% 9.2% 0.29
Mercer 6 1,310 16.9% 0% 6.6% 7.3% 0.25
Morton 22 5,170 27.9% 12% 12.3% 9.6% 0.33
Mountrail 9 2,203 38.3% 0% 9.7% 15.0% 0.32
Nelson 4 472 23.5% 0% 9.1% 7.6% 0.32
Oliver 2 270 28.9% 0% 13.7% 14.1% 0.34
Pembina 9 957 29.7% 0% 10.8% 7.6% 0.35
Pierce 2 616 25.8% 0% 11.4% 10.2% 0.33
Ramsey 10 1,847 42.4% 10% 19.8% 13.3% 0.44
Ransom 9 990 29.2% 0% 8.1% 9.1% 0.32
Renville 4 567 25.9% 0% 6.7% 7.4% 0.33
Richland 14 2,294 29.7% 0% 13.0% 10.6% 0.35
Rolette 12 2,944 92.2% 67% 36.6% 21.1% 0.86
Sargent 6 548 29.6% 0% 8.4% 10.4% 0.35
Sioux 6 331 100.0% 100% 59.5% 33.3% 1.00
Slope 1 14 0.0% — 0.0% 22.4% 0.00
Stark 21 5,095 25.5% 0% 11.2% 8.3% 0.27
Steele 3 148 34.5% 0% 20.9% 9.8% 0.37
Stutsman 15 2,603 32.9% 0% 14.2% 10.0% 0.36
Towner 2 286 30.1% 0% 16.8% 11.7% 0.35
Traill 10 1,383 20.9% 0% 7.7% 6.7% 0.28
Walsh 11 1,937 41.2% 0% 13.6% 10.9% 0.41
Ward 36 10,499 30.2% 0% 12.2% 8.7% 0.32
Wells 4 587 29.1% 0% 12.4% 13.0% 0.35
Williams 17 5,151 22.2% 0% 8.3% 8.2% 0.30

North Dakota 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 35,207 children who rely on school meals in North Dakota.

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

North Dakota child poverty

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

North Dakota child poverty atlas

North Dakota pantries

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

North Dakota 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