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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Pennsylvania

61% certified free/reduced

Across 2,820 public schools serving 1,651,696 students, 60.8% of Pennsylvania students are certified free or reduced-price. 1,178 schools (43% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 0.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

1.7M

Students enrolled

2,820

Public schools (CCD)

1,178

CEP / Provision 2 schools

67

Counties in atlas

Pennsylvania 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

Pennsylvania at a glance

Free/reduced

60.8%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

43%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

0.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

98%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

14.7%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.63

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 67 in Pennsylvania.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Forest 104.1%
  2. 2 Cameron 100.2%
  3. 3 Warren 100.0%
  4. 4 Sullivan 99.0%
  5. 5 Clinton 97.0%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Elk 100%
  2. 2 Forest 100%
  3. 3 Warren 100%
  4. 4 Philadelphia 93%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Philadelphia 176K
  2. 2 Allegheny 141K
  3. 3 Montgomery 116K
  4. 4 Chester 85K
  5. 5 Bucks 81K

Every county in Pennsylvania

All 67 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 25 13,083 46.3% 0% 0.0% 12.2% 0.42
Allegheny 267 140,769 53.6% 48% 0.0% 14.6% 0.60
Armstrong 16 6,512 92.2% 75% 0.0% 15.0% 0.89
Beaver 50 31,410 36.6% 43% 0.0% 12.0% 0.51
Bedford 17 6,019 64.2% 29% 0.0% 13.1% 0.61
Berks 91 62,390 65.0% 27% 0.0% 15.3% 0.61
Blair 32 15,929 72.4% 10% 0.0% 18.1% 0.58
Bradford 18 8,478 89.5% 72% 0.0% 15.3% 0.86
Bucks 119 81,488 39.5% 22% 0.0% 7.1% 0.46
Butler 37 24,480 36.8% 14% 0.0% 9.2% 0.42
Cambria 35 15,928 65.8% 54% 0.0% 17.3% 0.69
Cameron 2 550 100.2% 100% 0.0% 24.7% 1.00
Carbon 17 7,901 65.5% 18% 0.0% 17.6% 0.58
Centre 32 13,647 31.0% 6% 0.0% 9.6% 0.37
Chester 105 84,773 36.8% 17% 0.0% 6.0% 0.43
Clarion 15 5,083 71.6% 53% 0.0% 16.8% 0.72
Clearfield 18 8,515 96.3% 61% 0.0% 17.6% 0.86
Clinton 10 3,949 97.0% 90% 0.0% 18.4% 0.95
Columbia 18 7,021 55.6% 33% 0.0% 13.4% 0.58
Crawford 25 9,151 80.1% 60% 0.0% 16.9% 0.78
Cumberland 56 33,534 40.3% 2% 0.0% 8.8% 0.41
Dauphin 72 65,934 61.4% 44% 0.0% 19.9% 0.63
Delaware 105 74,678 56.1% 50% 0.0% 12.3% 0.63
Elk 9 3,164 88.6% 100% 0.0% 12.8% 0.94
Erie 66 35,505 74.7% 48% 0.0% 20.1% 0.72
Fayette 37 15,007 89.8% 84% 0.0% 23.9% 0.90
Forest 4 344 104.1% 100% 0.0% 22.5% 1.02
Franklin 39 21,542 68.0% 44% 0.0% 10.8% 0.67
Fulton 7 2,011 51.3% 43% 0.0% 18.8% 0.59
Greene 11 4,386 69.1% 45% 0.0% 17.1% 0.68
Huntingdon 15 4,480 62.1% 54% 0.0% 17.2% 0.65
Indiana 21 8,576 65.3% 52% 0.0% 18.2% 0.68
Jefferson 9 4,344 72.7% 78% 0.0% 22.8% 0.80
Juniata 5 2,288 54.5% 0% 0.0% 12.0% 0.47
Lackawanna 46 26,952 69.0% 54% 0.0% 19.4% 0.71
Lancaster 110 63,306 52.7% 23% 0.0% 11.2% 0.53
Lawrence 24 10,642 66.1% 50% 0.0% 17.3% 0.68
Lebanon 29 18,109 57.8% 31% 0.0% 10.9% 0.58
Lehigh 80 56,491 66.3% 48% 0.0% 16.7% 0.67
Luzerne 61 43,853 83.7% 75% 0.0% 25.0% 0.84
Lycoming 29 14,486 59.4% 34% 0.0% 15.7% 0.60
McKean 13 5,405 73.7% 77% 0.0% 21.4% 0.80
Mercer 33 12,939 69.8% 55% 0.0% 17.9% 0.71
Mifflin 10 4,888 74.7% 40% 0.0% 21.0% 0.69
Monroe 28 20,874 59.4% 37% 0.0% 13.6% 0.60
Montgomery 154 116,279 39.1% 13% 0.0% 7.4% 0.43
Montour 4 2,154 36.3% 0% 0.0% 12.6% 0.38
Northampton 58 38,687 60.7% 23% 0.0% 14.1% 0.57
Northumberland 19 9,757 84.1% 84% 0.0% 15.3% 0.87
Perry 14 5,581 65.7% 36% 0.0% 13.5% 0.64
Philadelphia 296 175,545 95.9% 93% 0.0% 24.9% 0.94
Pike 14 8,763 63.0% 29% 0.0% 12.8% 0.60
Potter 7 1,468 86.4% 14% 0.0% 17.4% 0.67
Schuylkill 33 18,139 66.1% 42% 0.0% 17.4% 0.66
Snyder 8 4,313 71.0% 50% 0.0% 13.7% 0.71
Somerset 28 8,307 63.7% 43% 0.0% 15.7% 0.65
Sullivan 2 597 99.0% 0% 0.0% 21.6% 0.69
Susquehanna 14 5,822 76.2% 71% 0.0% 16.4% 0.80
Tioga 14 5,124 72.4% 36% 0.0% 18.0% 0.67
Union 9 3,861 62.8% 33% 0.0% 10.9% 0.61
Venango 14 5,750 89.5% 86% 0.0% 18.9% 0.90
Warren 11 4,525 100.0% 100% 0.0% 16.1% 1.00
Washington 51 26,033 47.6% 25% 0.0% 11.6% 0.51
Wayne 11 4,370 56.5% 0% 0.0% 16.5% 0.48
Westmoreland 80 41,459 52.8% 41% 0.0% 12.9% 0.58
Wyoming 6 2,963 72.6% 33% 0.0% 15.7% 0.66
York 105 61,385 52.7% 12% 0.0% 11.4% 0.50

Pennsylvania 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 1,003,438 children who rely on school meals in Pennsylvania.

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

Pennsylvania child poverty

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

Pennsylvania child poverty atlas

Pennsylvania pantries

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

Pennsylvania 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