LEWISTON — Alisa Roman stopped at a rest area on the Maine Turnpike to chat with a Sun Journal reporter last week on her way back from a conference. She and others had just been discussing ways to get more schools to compost food waste.

Roman, the longtime director of nutrition and transportation for Lewiston Public Schools, is seemingly always on the front lines of efforts to improve food and nutrition programs in public schools. She often testifies in front of state and federal lawmakers on behalf of school food programs, working to fund or expand better ways of feeding students and combating food insecurity.

Last year, Roman was named Maine director of the year by the School Nutrition Association, a feat made more impressive when considering Roman’s job also entails coordinating transportation for the district.

According to the School Nutrition Association, the award is given to a director who “demonstrates leadership, collaboration and commitment to child nutrition.”

“I have a very good team, which makes it nice,” she said when asked about the award and juggling the workload. On the nutrition side alone, there is a staff of 78, she said.

“It really helps me focus on the bigger logistics of how we get food in and buying the right food, and getting more local food,” she said.

Roman, who attended the Culinary Institute of America, has been heavily involved in efforts to get more local food in Lewiston schools. This year, the district joined a program called the Marinara Collaborative, and now serves sauces made from ingredients from local farms. One of the farms is operated by the Somali Bantu Community Association. The district already uses state funding each year to purchase local apples and other produce.

She said it’s all part of a larger effort to create more “scratch cooking” in the schools, meaning meals made from scratch with real ingredients as opposed to premade or processed foods.

“When you go to lunch and everything is wrapped up like a continental breakfast, it’s discouraging,” she said, adding that the kitchens are constantly trying out new recipes. “I’m really proud of my crew because they’re ambitious.”

Since Roman came into the job in 2012, school nutrition has evolved, and she has worked to provide the district with more food at less cost. In 2015, Roman led Lewiston to become one of the first districts to provide school lunch to all students at no cost.

Through the USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision, Roman showed that more than 60% of the district was using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food benefits, and based on that, the federal government funded the district’s program. The district offers breakfast, lunch, a fresh fruit and veggie program, and “at-risk supper,” as well as summer food service programs. Roman said the summer food program is the largest in the state.

There are seven kitchens in the district, which spends close to $2.5 million a year on food purchases.

During the pandemic, Roman testified on behalf of legislation that allowed anyone in the state who participates in the national school lunch program to eat at no cost. As of the 2020-21 school year, 99.15% of all families qualify for free and reduced meals under the Community Eligibility Provision program Lewiston participates in.

“Part of that was reducing the stigma of free and reduced lunch with the state, and it was just wonderful to see that law passed,” she said.

Roman has also testified on behalf of bills that would bring more funding for purchasing local foods, providing more time for students to eat, and other legislation. Next month, she’ll travel to Washington, D.C., with other school nutrition employees to make sure Congress continues to fund local food programs.

She said when the national school lunch program first began, the law essentially said it could operate as long as programs were self-sufficient.

“Now they’re finding that it’s really more part of the school day, because a hungry kid can’t learn,” she said. “As adults, if we went to an all-day conference without food, we’d all be angry.”

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