Roadmap to Reopening: Meals

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises school districts to have students eat lunch in their classrooms, and most state guidance follows suit, helping students to observe social distancing and decreasing the number of people each child encounters. Most states have substituted pre-packaged boxed meals for self-service food lines.

If eating in classrooms is not feasible, most states advise staggering lunch times (allowing for enough time to clean between sessions), spreading students out or assigning seats. Some, like California, suggest installing partitions between seats to further separate students. Others, including Louisiana, recommend having students eat outdoors.

Scroll over each state to see its recommendations.