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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Utah

30% certified free/reduced

Across 998 public schools serving 671,414 students, 29.5% of Utah students are certified free or reduced-price. 59 schools (7% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 0.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

671K

Students enrolled

998

Public schools (CCD)

59

CEP / Provision 2 schools

29

Counties in atlas

Utah 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

Utah at a glance

Free/reduced

29.5%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

7%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

0.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

91%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

8.8%

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 29 in Utah.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 San Juan 72.5%
  2. 2 Piute 51.5%
  3. 3 Beaver 49.9%
  4. 4 Sanpete 48.7%
  5. 5 Carbon 47.2%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 San Juan 100%
  2. 2 Wayne 25%
  3. 3 Carbon 22%
  4. 4 Juab 14%
  5. 5 Weber 13%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Salt Lake 205K
  2. 2 Utah 161K
  3. 3 Davis 81K
  4. 4 Weber 49K
  5. 5 Washington 40K

Every county in Utah

All 29 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
Beaver 6 1,465 49.9% 0% 0.0% 13.3% 0.42
Box Elder 23 12,876 32.2% 0% 0.0% 8.5% 0.34
Cache 40 27,687 31.7% 0% 0.0% 7.3% 0.33
Carbon 9 3,623 47.2% 22% 0.0% 16.4% 0.50
Daggett 3 217 20.3% 0% 0.0% 8.1% 0.23
Davis 106 81,225 18.3% 0% 0.0% 5.4% 0.28
Duchesne 13 5,220 38.5% 0% 0.0% 12.0% 0.39
Emery 10 2,182 46.0% 0% 0.0% 12.7% 0.43
Garfield 10 1,560 31.7% 0% 0.0% 14.2% 0.34
Grand 4 1,472 33.4% 0% 0.0% 14.5% 0.37
Iron 17 10,593 39.5% 0% 0.0% 12.0% 0.37
Juab 10 3,001 26.2% 14% 0.0% 9.7% 0.31
Kane 9 1,427 36.7% 0% 0.0% 12.4% 0.34
Millard 9 3,255 45.7% 0% 0.0% 12.5% 0.38
Morgan 7 3,198 10.2% 0% 0.0% 4.0% 0.19
Piute 3 262 51.5% 0% 0.0% 24.8% 0.46
Rich 4 523 39.0% 0% 0.0% 10.3% 0.40
Salt Lake 288 204,665 35.6% 12% 0.0% 10.1% 0.40
San Juan 12 2,950 72.5% 100% 0.0% 21.2% 0.86
Sanpete 15 5,880 48.7% 0% 0.0% 13.8% 0.43
Sevier 11 4,522 45.7% 0% 0.0% 13.5% 0.43
Summit 17 7,565 17.4% 0% 0.0% 4.6% 0.26
Tooele 29 18,335 29.1% 0% 0.0% 7.4% 0.33
Uintah 13 7,109 39.5% 0% 0.0% 12.5% 0.37
Utah 182 161,235 21.3% 0% 0.0% 7.3% 0.29
Wasatch 10 9,303 22.5% 0% 0.0% 4.8% 0.27
Washington 59 40,315 29.9% 6% 0.0% 12.0% 0.34
Wayne 4 427 46.6% 25% 0.0% 17.2% 0.51
Weber 75 49,322 36.7% 13% 0.0% 8.7% 0.40

Utah 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 198,078 children who rely on school meals in Utah.

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

Utah child poverty

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

Utah child poverty atlas

Utah pantries

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

Utah 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