The most important meal of the day – to go style

Breakfast will continue for southeast Iowa community school districts as they craft their return-to-learn plans.

To start, they will be in a to-go style method.

Fairfield Community School District Food and Nutrition Services Director Stephanie Hawkins said that breakfast will continue in a 'grab-and-go” fashion, something that district implemented just last year.

'For us, it just matters how many students come to school,” Hawkins said. 'If it's 50 percent coming back, it won't be as big of an issue.”

Hawkins said not many students received breakfast in 2019.

As of December 2019, about 380 students between the three schools within the Fairfield district would receive breakfast in the mornings. She said every morning there will be two choices of breakfast options for students to utilize the 'grab-and-go” breakfast option, with hand sanitizer stations and social distancing measures in place.

The Washington Community School District provided a similar 'grab-and-go” model from March 2020 continuing through August 2020 for families within the district. All staff members, according to a draft of the return-to-learn plan, will be required to wear personal protective equipment. Similar protocols will be followed between both breakfast and lunch.

According to the plan, Stewart and Lincoln Elementary and the Washingon middle and high schools will implement staggered lunch times and utilize the grab-and-go model when needed.

Grab-and-go pickup spots for families will be identified as needed, and bus drivers and paraprofessionals will be utilized for distributing lunches or as delivery drivers.

Mt. Pleasant Community School District's return-to-learn plan describes students being encouraged to socially distance and wash and sanitize hands before eating breakfast in the mornings.

On Tuesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds warned school districts to not defy her order to return at least 50 percent in-person instruction for core subjects, or those schools would not meet state requirements for instructional time and would have to make up the time for students to receive credit.