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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Rhode Island

43% certified free/reduced

Across 296 public schools serving 131,403 students, 43.2% of Rhode Island students are certified free or reduced-price. 69 schools (24% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 25.4% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

131K

Students enrolled

296

Public schools (CCD)

69

CEP / Provision 2 schools

5

Counties in atlas

Rhode Island 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

Rhode Island at a glance

Free/reduced

43.2%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

24%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

25.4%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

98%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

14.1%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.48

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 5 in Rhode Island.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Providence 52.2%
  2. 2 Newport 32.0%
  3. 3 Kent 31.2%
  4. 4 Bristol 21.7%
  5. 5 Washington 20.2%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Providence 34%
  2. 2 Kent 15%
  3. 3 Bristol 8%
  4. 4 Newport 0%
  5. 5 Washington 0%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Providence 85K
  2. 2 Kent 19K
  3. 3 Washington 14K
  4. 4 Newport 8K
  5. 5 Bristol 6K

Every county in Rhode Island

All 5 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
Bristol 13 6,353 21.7% 8% 10.2% 7.0% 0.33
Kent 41 18,872 31.2% 15% 17.3% 9.8% 0.40
Newport 20 8,001 32.0% 0% 17.7% 11.6% 0.36
Providence 189 84,623 52.2% 34% 31.3% 16.6% 0.56
Washington 33 13,554 20.2% 0% 12.4% 9.9% 0.30

Rhode Island 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 56,731 children who rely on school meals in Rhode Island.

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

Rhode Island child poverty

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

Rhode Island child poverty atlas

Rhode Island pantries

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

Rhode Island 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