BRYAN, Texas — As school districts get ready for on-campus and remote learning this year, they're also navigating how to serve school lunches safely. Whatever option a student chooses, the district knows children need to eat. That's why they have come up with different plans in order to feed them safely.
“Here at the Child Nutrition Department we need to be available and accessible by all of them," said Bridget Goodlett, the director for the Child Nutrition Department at College Station ISD.
For students learning on-campus, they will be excused from their classrooms by small groups or individual classes to head to lunch. Students will then enter the cafeteria and wait in line, socially distanced apart.
With the exception of individualized, prepackaged food items, servers will plate all food items for each student. The plate will be placed on a counter for the students to pick up, and students won't grab any meal items themselves.
“No one will be reaching to pick up anything from a big basket or a large serving container," Goodlett said.
CSISD is trying to make the whole process as touchless as possible.
As for the payment process for elementary school, they won’t require students to use a keypad. Either teachers or students themselves will tell the cashier the child's name and they will run it through the computer. Intermediate schools through high school levels will scan their ID cards to scan for lunch payment.
For remote learning students, College Station ISD will have five sites for students to pick up grab and go meals. They're listed below.
- A&M Consolidated High School
- College Hills Elementary School
- Creek View Elementary School
- River Bend Elementary School
- Southwood Valley Elementary School
These meal sites will be open from 10 am - 10:45 am, Monday - Friday. CSISD students can go to any meal site to pick up lunch for that day, as well as breakfast for the next day.
“If the student is not present, the state says that a parent or legal guardian can pick up the meals for them as long as they have the student ID number or the student’s ID card," Goodlett said.
Navasota ISD
“You have to make those social distancing protocols fit into a cafeteria and bringing kids in," said Stu Musick, the superintendent of schools for Navasota ISD.
The school district in Navasota will stagger the times students will be in the cafeteria for lunch. Navasota Junior High and Navasota High School will reconfigure the bell schedule so the lunch periods can be split, and instead of having two or three periods, the schools will split into four or six to help keep the distance.
"That is just a scheduling opportunity and a hurdle that you have to make some adjustments to make that work in your daily schedule," Musick said.
NISD will also have grab and go lunches for those utilizing remote learning. It will follow the same routine as the spring meal pick up sites. The pick-up sites are listed below.
- High Point Elementary
- John C. Webb Elementary
Days and times will be posted soon, and breakfast and lunch are free to all Navasota ISD students.