LEWISTON — One sign of poverty in the city is the high number of students who qualify for free meals at school, as reported in the annual nutrition department numbers given to the School Committee on Monday night.

Out of 5,129 students, 3,390 qualify for free lunch because of their family’s income, schools nutrition director Alisa Roman said.

Regardless of whether students have been approved for free or reduced-priced meals, no student is ever turned away from a meal due to lack of money, she said.

“If they come through the door, we feed them. No child is left hungry,” Roman said.

Lewiston nutrition workers serve 4,857 meals a day in schools, including breakfast and lunch. “That’s a pretty hefty amount,” Roman said.

In the summer, 664 meals were served each day at 13 sites with a staff of four people, Roman said. Students received breakfast and lunch. Many students eat breakfast at school while attending summer programs, which have expanded.

“We don’t quit during the summer,” Roman said.

School Committee member Sonia Taylor praised the work of the nutrition staff, saying she’s seen firsthand how hungry inner-city students depend on school breakfast and lunch year round.

“I live on Bates Street. It is sad. It is disheartening,” Taylor said.

Taylor said she’s heading out for work when children in the neighborhood are walking to school with smiles, knowing they will eat.

“Their parents are not up,” Taylor said. “They’re not giving a hoot about them getting breakfast in their mouths before sending them off to school.”

Little children go to school “inadequately dressed. I can’t even imagine sending my kids in shoes that don’t even fit them,” she said. “That’s how they march themselves off to school; in pathetic, unwashed clothes that do not fit them.”

The summer school program and meals make a big difference “in that they’re being fed,” Taylor said. “Their parents don’t get up with them in the morning. They do rely on you ladies to take care of all of that.”

Roman also reported that changes in the lunch program this year include breakfast served in the classroom at three schools, Longley and Montello elementary, and Lewiston Middle School.

“What we’re seeing by feeding students in the classroom we have increased participation, which is fantastic,” Roman said. “More kids are eating breakfast. By offering them more choices at breakfast their attention span is lasting longer in the day.”

This year, in addition to cash and check systems, parents are offered an online payment system called “MySchoolBucks.” So far it’s been pretty successful, she said.

City Councilor Donald D’Auteuil said the balance in his student’s account doesn’t match what it showed online. “The numbers don’t match up,” he said.

Roman said she’d look into that.

Also this year, the lunch cycle menu is being expanded with a goal of repeating meals less often and to introduce new food to children “and expand their palates.”

She’s trying to serve students as much local food as she can, Roman said. Until a pest problem stopped production at Madison’s Backyard Farms, Lewiston schools bought Maine tomatoes. The district also buys Maine potatoes for oven-baked French fries, serves Maine milk, “and I use Blackie’s (Farm Fresh Produce),” which has some foods from local farms.

Her goal is to continue to serve more local food, Roman said. “The more local things I find, the more I can put on the menu.”

School Committee member Elizabeth Dube asked whether food waste is being composted.

Roman said it is not, nor is there a plan to compost, but she would like to compost food waste.

School Department Controller Elaine Runyon said it is a staffing problem. To compost food now thrown out, more staff would have to be hired.

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Campaign to send seventh-graders on field trips

LEWISTON — Lewiston Education Fund President Aime Parker told School Committee members Monday night that the nonprofit organization, which operates independently from the School Department, has a big goal this year.

In addition to providing grants for classroom teachers for innovative programs that support students, the organization wants to help each seventh-grader at Lewiston Middle School experience a part of Maine outside of Lewiston.

“There’s a huge population of Lewiston students who never leave the city,” Parker said. “How can a student aspire to be a marine biologist if they’ve never seen the ocean?”

The organization wants to raise $25,000 this year to ensure every seventh-grader leaves Lewiston on some kind of enrichment program “that shows them the wonderfulness of Maine.”

The field trip should incorporate the Maine outdoors. Parker said she hopes to receive applications from teachers on what the field trips could be.

That $25,000 breaks down to about $25 per student. Corporate sponsors, including L.L. Bean, do give, as do other companies and individuals, including a number of teachers.

But individuals could also make a big difference by donating $25 to sponsor one seventh-grader, Parker said. “You don’t have to be wealthy.”

She also encouraged School Committee members and others to attend upcoming fundraisers, including the Sept. 24 annual harvest reception and tasting at Fish Bones American Grill. The event will feature five courses, from grilled peaches with bleu cheese to spicy shrimp and baby kale to pepper crusted sirloin and native apple tartlet.

Tickets are $75 per person. For more information, visit lewistoneducationfund.org.