Corby Kummer Breaks Down Definitive Guide For Safe Restaurant Reopening

For the past seven months, the Aspen Institute's Food and Policy Program has been working to assemble a comprehensive guide for safe indoor dining. As of this week, that guide is officially out and free to the public.

On Friday, the organization’s director, food writer Corby Kummer, joined Boston Public Radio to talk about his hopes for how it’ll impact safe dining as restaurants work to get back to a form of quasi-normalcy.

“This is meant to be a nationally [applicable], easy to use, easy to post guide for all restaurant owners, managers, workers and diners, as a way of feeling safe as you go back to dining indoors,” he explained.

The guide includes the center's Diner Code of Conduct, which was initially released back in December. It’s a simple, straightforward checklist of commitments diners can make to ensure the safety of restaurant staff, and anyone looking to enjoy a meal indoors without the risk of contracting COVID-19. But the 74-page guide, Kummer noted, also includes a host of other useful information for restaurant workers and potential patrons.

"It’s full of common sense steps that every restaurant needs to take – especially right now,” he said.

“Because all cities are reopening, they’re trying to reopen, and we want to help restaurants and city health localities prevent a shutdown again.”

Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.