School Adapting Lunchroom In Response To COVID

The Lunchroom serves almost all the students and staff in a building, making it a vital part of any school; this year Hartford Union High School’s lunchroom will be implementing new changes such as social distancing and changes in serving methods.

This year one of the changes in the lunchroom is social distancing where students in line stand six feet apart, students at tables sit six feet apart. Though masks are required when not eating, Sophomore Grace Monsen said, “I do notice many students with masks below their noses, but the majority wear everything like they are supposed to.”

Beyond the changes seen by students, there are additional changes that change the way the food services staff do their work. Food services staff now follow student requests as they tailor their meals. As a result, School Nutrition Supervisor Monica Glorioso said, “Serving meals to customers is more labor-intensive.”

Despite this new method being more “labor-intensive,” food service staff, Joan Janz said, “The number of hours we work has not changed but we've had a shift in some duties.”

Among those new duties is preparing food for curbside pick up for virtual students. Virtual students are able to drive by the high school and pick up breakfast and lunch, free of charge. These meals are prepared by the food services staff ahead of time.

The food services staff is also allocating people to clean certain high touch areas, such as ovens handles, doorknobs, and cooler doors twice a day.

According to Glorioso, the school had been following safe practices before COVID. No changes have been made inside the kitchen for food preparation, in contrast to the multitude of changes made in the cafeteria.

The customizability of meals is something that Glorioso wishes to maintain. She, students, and staff alike have become much better at recognizing body language and speaking louder.

The lunchroom no longer provides salad bars as well. Senior Aliana Brown said, “I am hoping that they will bring back the salad bar and extra stuff they removed.” Brown anticipates these changes remaining in place until the end of 2020.

Glorioso is unsure of the future and cannot guess which changes will stay in the long run. “I am unsure what the future will hold and can only plan for the current conditions at this time," Glorioso said. "The touchless ID scanners are working and [I] anticipate we will be keeping those in the future.”