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PantryPath Research · School Hunger Atlas

School hunger in Vermont

46% certified free/reduced

Across 285 public schools serving 77,892 students, 46.1% of Vermont students are certified free or reduced-price. 126 schools (100% of NSLP participants) operate under the Community Eligibility Provision, and 0.0% of students are directly certified through SNAP, TANF, or Medicaid linkage.

78K

Students enrolled

285

Public schools (CCD)

126

CEP / Provision 2 schools

15

Counties in atlas

Vermont 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

Vermont at a glance

Free/reduced

46.1%

Share of enrollment

CEP share

100%

Of NSLP schools

Direct cert

0.0%

SNAP/TANF/Medicaid

NSLP schools

44%

Serve NSLP meals

5–17 in poverty

9.3%

Census SAIPE 2023

Access score

0.62

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 15 in Vermont.

Highest free/reduced share

Certified ≤185% FPL per enrollment

  1. 1 Bennington 64.8%
  2. 2 Orleans 62.8%
  3. 3 Essex 61.3%
  4. 4 Caledonia 58.6%
  5. 5 Orange 58.0%

Highest CEP adoption

Of NSLP schools — min. 3 NSLP schools

  1. 1 Bennington 100%
  2. 2 Caledonia 100%
  3. 3 Chittenden 100%
  4. 4 Essex 100%

Largest enrollment

Total students in CCD universe

  1. 1 Chittenden 21K
  2. 2 Franklin 8K
  3. 3 Washington 8K
  4. 4 Rutland 7K
  5. 5 Windsor 7K

Every county in Vermont

All 15 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
33009 1 234 44.4% — 0.0% — 0.22
Addison 19 4,011 39.4% 100% 0.0% 7.4% 0.51
Bennington 15 3,923 64.8% 100% 0.0% 12.7% 0.76
Caledonia 13 2,980 58.6% 100% 0.0% 14.7% 0.70
Chittenden 47 21,173 31.9% 100% 0.0% 6.3% 0.51
Essex 4 470 61.3% 100% 0.0% 17.2% 0.81
Franklin 20 8,072 49.4% 100% 0.0% 9.4% 0.64
Grand Isle 4 575 36.7% 100% 0.0% 11.1% 0.68
Lamoille 12 2,614 56.0% 100% 0.0% 9.4% 0.71
Orange 19 3,639 58.0% 100% 0.0% 10.2% 0.63
Orleans 19 3,746 62.8% 100% 0.0% 17.0% 0.81
Rutland 30 7,133 53.9% 100% 0.0% 11.2% 0.70
Washington 25 7,620 40.4% 100% 0.0% 7.0% 0.55
Windham 27 4,952 54.5% 100% 0.0% 9.7% 0.69
Windsor 30 6,750 46.5% 100% 0.0% 8.6% 0.59

Vermont 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 35,911 children who rely on school meals in Vermont.

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

Vermont child poverty

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

Vermont child poverty atlas

Vermont pantries

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

Vermont 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