LEWISTON – As they balanced lunch trays, paper and pens, Lewiston Middle School eighth-graders Ariel Powers and Kristina Lafrance asked each other a battery of questions.

What’s your favorite movie? “Haunting of Molly Hartley.”

Your favorite singer? “Katy Perry.”

What’s your favorite thing to do out of school? “Go shopping at Hot Topic.”

Normally, Powers and Lafrance didn’t hang out or eat together. Until recently they didn’t know each other.

The Mad-Mini-Mix-Match-Munchy-Lunch-Bunch changed that. The middle school’s civil rights team came up with the idea to match students who didn’t know each other. They had to ask questions, then report to the group what they learned about their partners.

Students then took part in group activities, such as learning how to salsa, before resuming their normal school day.

The goal, said teacher and civil rights coach Shayna Malyata, was to get kids out of their normal circles.

“It makes students more aware that there are other people beyond their little clique or the group they normally eat with,” Malyata said. “It just makes school a friendly place. If they know more people and pay attention to people in different groups, it makes it a safer place.”

Several students who got through the interviewing still seemed uncomfortable.

Malyata wasn’t surprised.

“At this age, it’s really hard to sit down with kids they don’t know,” she said. “They’re very self-conscious. ‘Am I cool enough to be with this person?’ Or, ‘Is that person cool enough to be with me?’ It’s an awkward age to do this. That’s why I don’t make it a school-wide mandate.” She also limited participation to 40 students, a number she found manageable.

It was the second time the Mad-Mini-Mix-Match-Munchy-Lunch-Bunch was held at the middle school. One was held last year, and students asked for an encore. Malyata hopes to hold one every other month.

Ariel Powers said she signed up so she could get to know other people. The lunch bunch will help “different groups come together more,” she said.

Kristina Lafrance agreed. “It’s really good for people to get to know others that they weren’t close to.”