Serving Outdoor Meals

When planning for outdoor meals you’ll need to decide if it will work better to serve indoors and have students carry their meals outside or if you want to set up an outdoor serving station.

At the beginning of the pandemic many schools quickly transitioned from serving students in cafeteria buffet lines to packaging food for pickup by families whose children were suddenly learning remotely. These packaged meals and the new single-serving grab-and-go versions provided when schools reopened lend themselves well to outdoor eating because they are designed to be easy to transport.  

Serving Indoors

At many schools with outdoor meals, the preparation and packaging of food is still carried out in the cafeteria. Food distribution of prepackaged meals to hungry students happens either by a teacher or staff member transporting meals from the cafeteria to the class cohort on a cart, or by students in physically distanced lines picking up their meals directly from the cafeteria serving area. 

Serving Outdoors

If your outdoor eating area is not located near the cafeteria, you may choose to set up a more convenient outdoor serving area. A temporary tented serving station may include warming trays and portable freezers. If electricity is not available nearby consider powering these with extension cords from the building.

You may opt to invest in a permanent outdoor serving space if your climate allows year-round dining in the fresh air and you are committed to making the joy of outdoor eating a regular part of your school’s culture. A more permanent solution may be as creative as a food truck or cart or a purpose-built outdoor refreshment stand.

Existing steps and risers provide easy mealtime seating.

Eating Meals Outside

Select locations that are comfortable and convenient.

Outdoor eating areas come in many shapes and sizes, and can be permanent or temporary, fixed in place or portable. Some schools in warm climates already use an outdoor space as their “lunch room” and might already have most of the infrastructure they need for students to eat their meals outdoors during the pandemic. Schools and districts that are new to outdoor meals will need to consider how and where they will accommodate small cohort groups of students for mealtimes on campus. If possible plan, eating areas to be close to meal service. If the climate is warm, select locations that are already shaded or can be easily shaded. If your campus can’t support outdoor meals for some reason, don’t give up. The same outdoor learning partnerships with nearby parks, churches, and other green spaces can work for outdoor meals, as can closing streets to provide space adjacent to schools with space restrictions.

Use thoughtful site planning

Many of the site planning considerations for creating outdoor classrooms during the pandemic are also useful for creating outdoor eating areas. Before purchasing any new infrastructure, evaluate the existing school grounds to see where students can sit comfortably using existing benches, tables, and shade. Consider, too, where they might sit using inexpensive seat cushions, picnic blankets, and other low-cost, portable supplies that make outdoor eating more comfortable. If your site is not secure enough to leave furnishings outside overnight, consider selecting more portable items to keep set-up and clean-up as simple as possible. See articles on Outdoor Infrastructure Planning Strategies, Outdoor Seating and Work Surfaces, Shade and Shelter, a Campus Assessment Tool, and other infrastructure planning articles.

Maintain air flow

Access to abundant fresh air is the main reason to bring meals outdoors. Be sure to select locations on the campus that have good overall airflow. Try to avoid adding walls to any temporary or permanent shelters that are used, to avoid reducing airflow during meals when masks will be removed.

staffing outdoor meals

To keep students following the required spacing and traffic flow patterns and depending on the age of the students and size of cohorts it is likely that additional supervision will be required at mealtimes. For schools that are not currently offering extended day programs, it makes sense to employ staff from those programs and other paraprofessionals to provide supervision at mealtimes. For more ideas on staffing, see Planning Strategies for Staffing.

In some communities it is possible to use parents and other volunteers to supplement paid staff. If this is your plan, be sure to allow time for the required background checks to be completed.

One way traffic

During the pandemic, plan to maintain one-way flow of foot traffic for all aspects of mealtime. This includes getting food, moving to the seating area, cleaning up and disposing of waste, and finally leaving the area after meals. Use arrows on the ground and/or signs to show the direction of foot traffic. Signage with words or symbols (e.g. “One Way,” “Stop,” “U Turn,” “Caution,” “Slow”) should face students and be at their eye level if possible.

Separate food service and waste sorting stations and keep them both away from eating tables so that there is space for students to pass by and for students waiting in line to choose their food or sort their waste after their meal.

If recess or outdoor play time follows mealtime, transitions from outdoor eating to outdoor play can be simpler than moving a whole group from indoors to outside. Once students know the routine, they can often manage getting themselves from one area of the schoolyard to another individually or in small groups.

Physical distancing

During the pandemic, it is very important to design outdoor meal spaces with physical distancing guidance in mind. Ensure students are spaced appropriately when waiting for their turn in line or when eating by using marks on the ground or on benches, hula hoops, score marks in the sidewalk, prearranged seating, or other similar indicators. 

Follow physical distancing guidelines. Check the CDC and local health guidelines to stay informed of changing recommendations.

Plan for cohort size. Establish separate areas for each class cohort to reduce virus transmission and stay consistent with health guidance. Leave as much space as feasible between class groups. Consider staggering mealtimes to further separate classes if optimum physical distance between class groups is not possible.

It is important to include hand-washing sinks and other equipment for outdoor sanitation near outdoor eating areas.

cleaning surfaces

When multiple cohorts are using the same eating spaces, surfaces may need to be cleaned between uses. This includes plastic chairs, desks, and acrylic dividers. If students are seated on natural stumps or pavement the CDC does not recommend cleaning these surfaces. Pandemic-related guidance changes so confirm the latest recommendations to be sure.

Include outdoor hand-washing facilities

Situate outdoor eating areas near outdoor hand-washing facilities, such as sinks, so students can wash their hands before and after meals. If outdoor sinks are not available, provide hand sanitizer stations.

Ensure that hand-washing stations are accessible to students.

Consider installing hand sanitizer dispensers on school grounds. If hand-washing stations are not available, ensure students have access to fragrance-free alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

You can also create your own hand-washing station! If your school building has easily accessible water spigots near high-use outdoor areas, consider connecting a simple hand-washing station nearby.

To create a portable hand-washing station, purchase 5-gallon water dispensers, soap, and paper towels and place them on sturdy stools. Provide a waste bin with a fitted lid for used paper towels. Hand-washing stations can also be placed at other strategic locations or can be put into a carrying cart that can be brought to different learning areas. See this example of a hand-washing station from the Safe Plates Program at North Carolina State University (right).

Another easy model is a Tippy Tap or the adaptation pictured to the left by Mudworks. It includes a 5 gallon jug suspended from a bamboo tripod and controlled by a simple foot lever. A liquid soap dispenser or a bar of soap can be hung from a string nearby. Watch a video here showing how it was built.

Managing mealtime waste

It is important to plan for reducing, sorting, and managing mealtime waste whether students are dining indoors or outside. Know that it is entirely possible to implement a comprehensive waste management system as part of your outdoor meal planning. 

For schools who have transitioned to grab-and-go meals, it is likely that the amount of disposable packaging has increased dramatically. In addition, because prepackaged meals may mean that students have fewer options about what they choose to take at mealtimes there may be more uneaten food. For these reasons, it is especially important to carefully consider what happens to uneaten food and used packaging. Managing Surplus Food and Mealtime Waste Outside includes tools and resources related to reducing waste, waste station set-ups, custodial support, and more. Consider adopting as many of these practices as you can manage into your outdoor meal routines. 

Manage waste bins for garbage, recycling, and organics in a way that minimizes having to touch the bins and that supports social distancing guidelines.

If food is served or consumed outdoors, remove food waste from the area daily to discourage pests.