Data Brief: 2023-24 Kids Missing Out on Breakfast

There is a big gap between the kids who qualify for free school meals and the kids who actually get them. U.S. public schools reported 31.4 million children were enrolled for free or reduced-price meals during the 2023-24 school year but only 12 million kids started their day with breakfast at school. This means that on an average school day, over 19 million students missed out on school breakfast – that adds up to more than 3 billion missed meals over the course of the school year.
 

Learn more by downloading the data brief. An overview of the national trend and a data table with state level numbers is included in the download.