Children’s school meal participation was higher in the 2023-2024 school year than in 2022-2023. Nearly 15.4 million children received breakfast and nearly 29.4 million received lunch on an average school day, according to the Food Research & Action Center’s The Reach of School Breakfast and Lunch During the 2023-2024 School Year. These figures describe average daily participation, while program totals count meals served across the full school year.
Contents
- National participation snapshot
- School breakfast participation
- School lunch participation
- Free, reduced-price, and paid meals
- State breakfast-to-lunch patterns
- Long-run program volume
National participation snapshot
The 2023-2024 school year provides the clearest recent picture in this dataset. On an average school day, nearly 15.4 million children received school breakfast, while nearly 29.4 million received school lunch. Lunch therefore reached a larger average daily population than breakfast, with the two figures reflecting separate participation measures rather than a count of unique children.
Both programs grew from the prior school year. Average daily breakfast participation increased by nearly 1.1 million children, or 7.4%, from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024. Average daily lunch participation increased by 1.2 million children, or 4.4%, over the same period. The breakfast increase was faster in percentage terms, while the lunch increase was larger in absolute children served.
The national free-or-reduced-price breakfast-to-lunch participation ratio was 58.1 children served breakfast for every 100 served lunch in 2023-2024. That ratio was 57.4 per 100 in 2022-2023, so the reported breakfast measure moved upward between the two school years. The ratio is limited to free-or-reduced-price participation and should not be read as a direct comparison of all breakfast and lunch participants.
The same report identifies a gap between current breakfast participation and a benchmark of 70 low-income children served breakfast for every 100 served lunch. Only two states and the District of Columbia reached at least that level in 2023-2024. Fourteen states reached at least 60 low-income children served breakfast for every 100 served lunch. Under the report’s 70-breakfasts-per-100-lunches benchmark, nearly $754 million in federal funding was identified as unclaimed for 2023-2024. California, Florida, and New York together accounted for just over $264 million of that identified missed funding.
School breakfast participation
Breakfast participation in 2023-2024 included nearly 15.4 million children on an average school day. The program also served just over 2.3 billion breakfasts during the school year. Total School Breakfast Program breakfasts increased by 155.9 million from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024. The daily-participation and annual-service figures measure different aspects of the program: one describes an average day, and the other counts total breakfasts served over the year.
The participation mix was concentrated in free meals. Just over 11.8 million breakfast participants received free breakfast, representing 76.7% of breakfast participants. About 430,040 received reduced-price breakfast, representing 2.8%. Nearly 3.2 million paid for breakfast, representing 20.5%.
The Food Research & Action Center reported increases and decreases across states rather than a uniform national pattern. Only four states had a decrease in free-or-reduced-price breakfast participation in 2023-2024: Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, and Missouri. Six states had a decrease in overall breakfast participation: Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Vermont, and Wyoming.
Several states recorded notable increases in overall breakfast participation during 2023-2024. Colorado’s overall breakfast participation increased 37.0%, Minnesota’s increased 36.2%, Michigan’s increased 23.5%, and Vermont’s increased 31.7%. These percentages describe changes in participation for those states from the preceding school year, not the share of children participating.
School lunch participation
Lunch participation reached nearly 29.4 million children on an average school day in 2023-2024. Across the full year, just over 4.4 billion lunches were served through the National School Lunch Program. That total increased by just over 187.3 million lunches from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024.
Free lunch accounted for about 20.1 million participants, or 68.5% of lunch participants. About 946,257 received reduced-price lunch, or 3.2%. About 8.3 million paid for lunch, or 28.2%.
State-level lunch participation also varied. Five states and the District of Columbia had a decrease in free-or-reduced-price lunch participation in 2023-2024. Eight states had a decrease in overall lunch participation. Among the states with the largest reported average-day counts of free-or-reduced-price lunch participants, Texas recorded 2,732,694, California recorded 2,265,209, Florida recorded 1,523,613, and New York recorded 1,396,419.
The following comparison brings the national breakfast and lunch participation mixes together. Percentages are for participants in the 2023-2024 school year.
| Meal program | Average daily participants | Free | Reduced-price | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| School breakfast | Nearly 15.4 million | 76.7% | 2.8% | 20.5% |
| School lunch | Nearly 29.4 million | 68.5% | 3.2% | 28.2% |
The breakfast and lunch percentages show a larger free-meal share for breakfast than for lunch in the reported national participation mix. They should not be used to infer household income, individual eligibility, or the number of unique children, because the measures describe program participation categories.
Free, reduced-price, and paid meals
State participation mixes show why national averages can conceal substantial differences. In Alabama, 2023-2024 breakfast participation was 89.4% free, 1.5% reduced-price, and 9.1% paid. Illinois had a similar breakfast mix: 89.6% free, 1.4% reduced-price, and 9.0% paid. New York’s breakfast participation was 87.9% free, 0.2% reduced-price, and 11.9% paid.
Other states reported a much larger paid share for breakfast. Colorado’s breakfast participation was 56.7% free, 2.5% reduced-price, and 40.8% paid. Maine’s was 38.0% free, 4.2% reduced-price, and 57.7% paid. These figures are participation shares for the 2023-2024 school year and are not forecasts.
Lunch mixes also varied. Kentucky’s lunch participation was 86.2% free, 0.4% reduced-price, and 13.2% paid. Texas reported 77.4% free, 3.2% reduced-price, and 19.5% paid. Colorado reported 46.3% free, 2.9% reduced-price, and 50.8% paid, while Vermont reported 49.2% free, 3.1% reduced-price, and 47.7% paid.
Maine’s reported lunch participation mix was 38.0% free, 4.2% reduced-price, and 57.7% paid. The contrast between these state figures and the national mix is useful when interpreting school meal participation: the same program category can have a very different distribution of free, reduced-price, and paid meals across states.
State breakfast-to-lunch patterns
The free-or-reduced-price breakfast-to-lunch ratio compares breakfast participation with lunch participation among children receiving free or reduced-price meals. In 2023-2024, West Virginia had the highest reported ratio among states, at 87.1 breakfasts per 100 lunches. The District of Columbia’s ratio was 83.0 per 100, and New Mexico’s was 72.4 per 100.
At the lower end of the reported examples, Utah’s ratio was 35.8 breakfasts per 100 lunches, while Hawaii’s was 39.3 per 100. These state figures sit on opposite sides of the national ratio of 58.1 per 100. They indicate differences in breakfast reach relative to lunch within the free-or-reduced-price population, not differences in the nutritional content or cost of meals.
The year-over-year state changes also show that breakfast and lunch can move at different rates. Vermont’s average daily free-or-reduced-price breakfast participation increased 31.7% from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024, while its corresponding lunch participation increased 40.0%. South Carolina’s free-or-reduced-price breakfast participation increased 20.1%, and its lunch participation increased 25.5% over the same period. Alaska’s free-or-reduced-price breakfast participation decreased 1.3%.
Long-run program volume
USDA historical figures place recent participation in a much longer program record. The USDA Economic Research Service reports that the School Breakfast Program served nearly 65 billion breakfasts from its permanent authorization in 1975 through fiscal year 2023. The program’s annual volume plateaued at about 2.4 billion breakfasts from FY 2017 through FY 2019.
The historical series also includes a sharp lower point and later recovery. School Breakfast Program volume dropped to about 1.8 billion breakfasts in FY 2020. It provided 2.5 billion breakfasts in FY 2022 and about 2.4 billion in FY 2023. These are fiscal-year totals, so they are not directly interchangeable with the average daily participation figures for the 2023-2024 school year.
On average, 85% of School Breakfast Program breakfasts were served free or at reduced price each year from FY 2017 through FY 2019, according to the same USDA Economic Research Service source. That historical percentage covers the stated fiscal-year period and should not be treated as the 2023-2024 participation mix.
The USDA Economic Research Service’s National School Lunch Program summary reports that the program served nearly 241 billion lunches from FY 1969 through FY 2023. It served 4.7 billion lunches in FY 2023. Together, these long-run totals show the scale of the two federal meal programs over time, while the 2023-2024 school-year figures show the more recent average-day participation and meal-service picture.