Covid precautions at lunch??

[acmom]

Our schools have not resumed here yet and the piece I am most nervous about is lunch, particularly for my kindergartener, who has some risk factors and is obviously unvaccinated with all unvaccinated peers. Our schools have a mask mandate, but the lunch picture remains fuzzy. What are your schools doing for lunch in terms of precautions and spacing? Has anyone who started already run into lots of close contact issues for lunchtime?? Our school is considering anyone masked at 3ft. a "close contact", but no one has said anything about lunch and sounds like they will still be at 3ft or less, but obviously unmasked to eat...

[Myira]

My DD’s middle school they are not using the cafeteria and eat lunch in the classroom. They have plexiglass on the desk so 2 other pod mates are separated from you by plexiglass.

For my DS, fifth grader, they do go to the lunch room but they are spaced apart. Now I’m not sure how much distance they manage to keep between kids though. Our district requires masks on at all times inside the buildings but lunch is obviously a different ballgame.
The best you can hope for is some distancing at lunch and then hoping they strictly put masks back on afterwards I guess.


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[basil]

Half of kids go to cafeteria and half stay in the classroom. This way they can spread out more while unmasked.

Better than nothing?

[carolinamama]

Lunch time is my biggest concern too. Our schools require masking but obviously the kids need to eat at some point. My 5th and 7th grader are eating in their classrooms. All kids are facing forward, no talking (they put on a movie) and encourage the kids to eat efficiently so masks can be replaced. They also have open windows and air purifiers. Classes take turns eating outside. I don't worry about them so much as their school is taking precautions seriously and they have more resources to make it happen. DS1 is in high school and they use the cafeteria. Kids now have assigned seats but he doesn't report any other measures. I've asked him to eat quickly and replace his mask if possible but he's 15, so it's hard to know exactly what he's doing.

In our district, each school seems to interpret the direction differently but most have switched from full-capacity cafeteria use to spreading out kids between outside, classrooms and cafeteria. You would not be out of line contacting the school to ask about their plans for lunch.

[smilequeen]

My one unvaccinated kiddo, they eat lunch in the cafeteria but they spread out. The lunch times are staggered so no more than 2 classes at a time. But their class size is 18 and the cafeteria is large, so spreading them out is very easy.

My older boys school is heavily vaccinated, they have a mask mandate. Last year they ate in classrooms. This year they use the cafeteria but there is a limit on kids per table. Much lower risk group though considering vax status.

[PZMommy]

My district has pretty strict guidelines, but lunch is a free for all. They are supposed to be sitting 3 feet apart (and there are stickers on seats of where kids can sit). They enforce it the best that they can. For close contact purposes, they say lunch is not considered close contact because they are outside and 3 feet apart. Unless it rains we eat outside year round.

[chlobo]

My son came home this week very unnerved because the cafeteria was full. It is a heavily vexed population for the kids that can get it but sometimes they eat with younger grades who might not be eligible. They said that due to not having enough staff to supervise outside, kids have to eat inside. If parents want, they can come supervise their kids outside for lunch.

[wencit]

I have been happy with how my son's middle school has been handling lunch. Currently lunch is outdoors only, and in addition to tables, admin has set out numbered traffic cones in open spaces, with a limit as to how many students can sit at each table and cone. When they take a seat, they use either their phones or Chromebooks to scan the QR code at each table/cone, so that admin knows who is sitting where during any given lunch period. I'm assuming this is for contact tracing purposes. It's been a couple days since they started this lunchtime "seating chart," and DS2 reports that it's pretty easy and no problems so far. He's also told me that the yard duties walk around to make sure students are sitting 3 feet apart. I'm not sure what's going to happen when we enter the rainy season here.

At DS1's high school, lunch time is a complete free-for-all, with kids jammed pretty close together, albeit outside.

[carolinacool]

My sixth-grader eats in the classroom, although he also might also go to the cafeteria at times. I'm not clear on that. The desks are 3 feet apart. I believe they can talk and they don't have to face in one direction.

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but very few schools -- if any -- in our district are set up for outdoor dining. It's not very common where I live. DS' middle school, which has 1,100 students, has four uncovered picnic tables. One district about an hour from me is buying picnic tables for all of their schools and some parents have pitched in to buy canopies to cover them.

[MSWR0319]

Our elementary has each lunch table separated (they are normally in long lines) and instead of four people on each side, they are doing two on one side at each end, so everyone is facing the same direction. I would guess they are probably 3 feet or so from the person sharing their table and maybe a bit farther than that from the table beside them.

At the middle school they have round tables that usually hold 8, but instead are requiring 4. Doesn't really make me feel comfortable because they're all close and talking into one another. DS does sit with his friends who are vaccinated which gives me about as much peace as I can get from that situation.