CHD Expert Identifies K-12 Schools That Participate in Free and Reduced Lunch Programs

CHD Expert identifies K-12 Schools that participate in free and reduced lunch meal programs, highlighting big opportunities for foodservice professionals in education.

Leading food service data and analytics companyCHD Expert, releases new data identifying the different schools that participate in government funded National School Lunch Programs.

June 21st marked the first day of summer, and while many children look forward to their summer break, being out of school poses a challenge for millions of children who live in food insecure households.

In 1946 President Truman introduced a federal assisted meal program to provide nutritionally balanced lunches at a free or reduced cost to children while in school. Currently this program is overseen by the US Department of Agriculture and there are more than 31 million children who receive free or reduced school lunches each day (Source:Food and Nutrition Service).

With the School Nutrition Association’s 2013 Annual National Conference taking place in Kansas City later this month, CHD Expert provides the latest numbers on Free and Reduced Lunch Meal counts for the entire United States.

According to CHD Expert’s FIND database, there are 63,406 K -12 Schools that offer Free and Reduced Lunch Meals in the United States. In addition, CHD Expert also reports that there are 4,367 school districts in the United States with more than 500 students on free and reduced lunch meals. In total, CHD Expert’s Education Database contains 123,140 K-12 Schools and 13,405 School Districts across the nation. This does not include CHD Expert’s Database for Colleges and Universities.

CHD Expert also breaks down and compares different regions within the United States. In the Pacific Region1 there are 661 school districts with more than 500 students on free and reduced lunch meals. The Midwest region2 by comparison has 1,025 such school districts. (Pacific States Include: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Midwest States Include: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.)

Other filters CHD Expert has available to dissect the data include: Ownership (Public, Private, and Religious); Enrollment, Number of Meals Served Per Day; Number of Schools in the District. There is also contact information available for each school and school district, which could include the titles of Principal, Superintendent, and Foodservice Directors.

“This is highly coveted information for foodservice providers who cater their products or services to schools and school districts,” stated Brad T. Bloom, Director of Sales for CHD Expert North America. “By understanding which schools obtain federal assistance, providers can better focus their sales efforts and position themselves to receive awarded bids from these schools. During times when school budgets are tight, being able to pinpoint who is getting a little extra help from the federal government can help your organization get more sales.”

To obtain more information about CHD Expert’s findings, or with general questions about education foodservice data, please contact Nicolas Watson.