Lunch for in person schools

[SnuggleBuggles]

To start- we are planning to send ds2 back and have debated the pros and cons in our home so not really looking to have my mind changed. Just a logistical question here.

Our kids might finally be going back in the coming weeks but the teachers union is hitting parents hard trying to get us not to send our kids in. The most compelling was that they expect kids to stay in their classroom all day, including for lunch. I see their concern but it’s winter and they can’t eat outside. I don’t know why they aren’t staggering groups in the cafeteria and plan to ask.

But, where do your kids eat lunch in school?


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[Philly Mom]

Our elementary kids are half day hybrid to avoid lunch. Our middle and high school kids are full day hybrid so go to school every other day to reduce density. They eat spread out through cafeteria and auditorium. My friend’s kid at a different school, also hybrid, eats in a cafeteria with an assigned seat.

In our district, the parents keep asking for the kids to eat in classrooms to allow more spread but the teachers want their own space for lunch. I get it. They deserve to eat their lunch alone.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

Our elementary kids are half day hybrid to avoid lunch. Our middle and high school kids are full day hybrid so go to school every other day to reduce density. They eat spread out through cafeteria and auditorium. My friend’s kid at a different school, also hybrid, eats in a cafeteria with an assigned seat.

In our district, the parents keep asking for the kids to eat in classrooms to allow more spread but the teachers want their own space for lunch. I get it. They deserve to eat their lunch alone.


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Thanks!
Where I am, it only counts as a school day if lunch is served. Gets comical if there’s a 2 hour delay on a half day.


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[khm]

They spread out. They had a few grandpa's build a lot of plexi-glass table dividers, but the kids can't chat very well through them with the general noise of the area. The tables that are there are spread out of the "table area" bounds too. It's a large open atrium area.

When it was warm, they could go outside. Now, they spread out into the adjacent halls, the floors, the gym, etc. It's not great, but they don't seem to care. I feel bad for the cleaning folks, because it's just a lot more area for them to deal with, but the kids don't care at all.

[daisyd]

The kids in in person school eat in the classroom at their desk. They get daily outdoor time for a minimum 20 minutes except in inclement weather.

[Liziz]

My DDs have been in person the full year. The majority of the time, they eat lunch in their classrooms. For several months after school started, they only ate in their classrooms. Then, when they were feeling a little more comfortable with their ability to prevent spread in schools, they started allowing 2-3 classrooms a day to eat in the cafeteria -- they would sit on only one side of the table, with three seats (more than 6 feet) between them, and they had assigned seats so that the kids sitting on either side of them were the same kids that sat near them in the classroom. It worked out to my kids eating lunch in the cafeteria maybe once every 2 weeks. During the winter break, they installed plexiglass dividers on the cafeteria tables. They're high -- probably 3 feet off the table? and they extend out past the edge of the table.....it really seems like the kids are enclosed in this little plexiglass pod. With this set up they're now allowing kids to sit every other seat (instead of leaving three seats between children), and they're seating them on both sides of the table (staggered, so even with the barrier, kids don't have anyone directly across from them). This allows for many more children to fit in the cafeteria so now they are having lunch in the cafeteria maybe 1-2/week -- but still eating in their classrooms the majority of the time.

My school makes an effort to provide relief for teachers during the lunch period -- the people who would normally staff the cafeteria, and other staff members w/o an assigned classroom, paras, etc. come and give the teachers a break at lunch whenever possible. It's definitely not always possible though and certainly every teacher isn't getting someone every day. Many teachers in my area were pretty vocal about preferring to be in person for school though, so I think they're a bit more willing to deal with things like that because they prefer in-person school to virtual school.

ETA: as for OP's question about why they're not staggering groups in the cafeteria -- at my DDs school, lunch starts at 10:45 and runs until 1:30 -- and that's in a normal year with each table packed with kids. I think many schools run on a schedule like that, based on the size of their facilities. That being the case, there's just not really a way to both allow the entire school to eat in the cafeteria in a safe, socially distanced way without going WAY outside the bounds of a reasonable lunch time (which is pushed even in normal times!)

[erosenst]

Hybrid (every other day) high school. They eat in the cafeterias and have expanded to some other areas. Two to a table. It's not totally ideal (they back up to someone else) but we also have had minimal spread since August re-opening so I'm fine with it.

[MSWR0319]

Our school has been full time all school year, but my kids aren't there. Our cafeteria has round tables that seat 8, high tables that seat 6, and booths. I'm not sure how they are dealing with booths, but they have cut the seating at the table in half so the kids sit every other seat. There are no where near 6 feet apart, I'm actually gonna guess not even 3 feet apart. They say there's been no spread from lunch but I don't know. Our school seems to not be following any of the CDC requirements that were just put out other than masking.

[SnuggleBuggles]

My DDs have been in person the full year. The majority of the time, they eat lunch in their classrooms. For several months after school started, they only ate in their classrooms. Then, when they were feeling a little more comfortable with their ability to prevent spread in schools, they started allowing 2-3 classrooms a day to eat in the cafeteria -- they would sit on only one side of the table, with three seats (more than 6 feet) between them, and they had assigned seats so that the kids sitting on either side of them were the same kids that sat near them in the classroom. It worked out to my kids eating lunch in the cafeteria maybe once every 2 weeks. During the winter break, they installed plexiglass dividers on the cafeteria tables. They're high -- probably 3 feet off the table? and they extend out past the edge of the table.....it really seems like the kids are enclosed in this little plexiglass pod. With this set up they're now allowing kids to sit every other seat (instead of leaving three seats between children), and they're seating them on both sides of the table (staggered, so even with the barrier, kids don't have anyone directly across from them). This allows for many more children to fit in the cafeteria so now they are having lunch in the cafeteria maybe 1-2/week -- but still eating in their classrooms the majority of the time.

My school makes an effort to provide relief for teachers during the lunch period -- the people who would normally staff the cafeteria, and other staff members w/o an assigned classroom, paras, etc. come and give the teachers a break at lunch whenever possible. It's definitely not always possible though and certainly every teacher isn't getting someone every day. Many teachers in my area were pretty vocal about preferring to be in person for school though, so I think they're a bit more willing to deal with things like that because they prefer in-person school to virtual school.

ETA: as for OP's question about why they're not staggering groups in the cafeteria -- at my DDs school, lunch starts at 10:45 and runs until 1:30 -- and that's in a normal year with each table packed with kids. I think many schools run on a schedule like that, based on the size of their facilities. That being the case, there's just not really a way to both allow the entire school to eat in the cafeteria in a safe, socially distanced way without going WAY outside the bounds of a reasonable lunch time (which is pushed even in normal times!)

For us, only about 65% of families opted to come back. And they are doing 2 day/week cohorts so I’m hoping the number of kids in the building at one time would allow for more flexibility with using the cafeteria. But, probably once you add distancing guidelines in then it’d run into trouble of fitting it in during lunch periods.


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[mikala]

Our elementary kids eat lunch in the cafeteria. They are doing a hybrid schedule so only have half class sizes any given day so they spread them out. They also added tables to an adjacent space for more social distancing room.

They also changed the lunches themselves to be all served up on one tray vs serve yourself options and made lunch free for everyone so they wouldn't have to stand in line to pay.