Subsidized school lunches in Snohomish County

The number of students in Snohomish County who receive free and reduced-priced meals through the National School Lunch Program has steadily increased over the past five years in the majority of school districts.

According to the most recent available data, collected in October 2011 by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Child Nutrition Services, the Index School District had the highest percentage of students enrolled in the program while the Northshore School District, which serves students in Snohomish and King Counties, had the lowest percentage enrolled.

Applications to enroll in free or reduced-price meal programs are sent home to families at the beginning of every school year. Those with income levels meeting guidelines set annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are eligible to apply.

School Districts that participate in the National Lunch Program report the number of students who received free or reduced-price meals to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Child Nutrition Services by Dec. 31. Those numbers are collected by districts every year in late October and are published by the state at the beginning of the following year.

Districts ranked by 2011 % of students receiving lunch subsidy

School district	2007 enrollment	2007 lunch subsidy	2008 lunch subsidy	2009 lunch subsidy	2010 lunch subsidy	2011 enrollment	2011 lunch subsidy	Enrollment change since 2007
1. Index	25	68.0%	51.5%	57.9%	56.4%	40	65.0%	60.0%
2. Darrington	629	42.9%	45.3%	54.7%	56.0%	475	63.8%	-24.5%
3. Marysville	11,399	32.8%	35.3%	41.7%	42.0%	11,352	50.5%	-0.4%
4. Mukilteo	14,310	38.4%	43.2%	46.1%	47.8%	14,685	49.8%	2.6%
5. Sultan	2,153	33.4%	37.2%	40.9%	41.1%	1,919	47.0%	-10.9%
6. Granite Falls	2,418	27.2%	33.7%	36.7%	41.6%	2,220	43.3%	-8.2%
7. Everett	19,504	33.7%	33.6%	38.4%	38.6%	19,024	39.6%	-2.5%
8. Edmonds	20,416	29.4%	30.4%	26.6%	33.6%	19,056	36.6%	-6.7%
9. Lakewood	2,728	27.7%	28.2%	32.1%	34.5%	2,699	35.2%	-1.1%
10. Monroe	5,847	18.9%	22.2%	23.5%	26.8%	5,633	34.7%	-3.7%
11. Arlington	5,255	19.8%	23.7%	24.6%	25.6%	5,582	33.9%	6.2%
12. Lake Stevens	7,642	21.6%	25.8%	30.2%	32.1%	8,200	33.2%	7.3%
13. Stanwood-Camano	5,540	20.6%	21.7%	24.1%	25.9%	4,790	26.9%	-13.5%
14. Snohomish	9,390	13.3%	14.7%	18.5%	20.3%	10,112	22.0%	7.7%
15. Northshore	19,647	11.8%	12.8%	14.8%	16.0%	19,592	16.8%	-0.3%
All districts	73,582	32.9%	34.9%	37.2%	39.7%	71,470	42.9%	-2.9%

Snohomish County school districts

Click to see enrollment and school-lunch data.