WESTBROOK – After starting the year in the red, the Westbrook School Department’s nutrition program should be self-supporting by the end of this fiscal year, according to Barbara Nichols, director of school nutrition.

Nichols said the nutrition program is now operating in the positive and will likely remain so throughout the end of the year, thanks in part to many of changes she brought with her when she started at the end of 2011.

“I’m not sure how we’re going to come out at the end of the year, but hopefully we will be self-supporting. We’ve made changes, but we still need more,” Nichols said.

Some of those changes include things like making more meals from scratch and increasing the price of school lunches by 5 cents, both of which helped bring the negative $27,000 starting budget this fall back to positive.

For $1.85 at the elementary schools and middle schools and $2.05 at the high school, students get a healthy meal that meets or exceeds the governments nutrition standards. Menus include a whole-wheat pizza bar with Portland Pie Co. pizza shells, American chop suey, roast pork and General Tso’s chicken, all served with fruits and vegetables.

During a recent meeting of the school finance committee, member Alex Stone told Nichols she’d done “a great job since taking over the program,” but said there were still improvements to be made.

School Committee Chairman Jim Violette explained that during budget season last year, when the nutrition program appeared to be nearly $77,000 in the red, the School Committee took $57,000 from the adult education budget and $20,000 from expenses and supplies to start the year at a clean slate.

“Two or three months in we find out you’re not at 0. That was frustrating,” Violette said. “The school committee voted on it at the end of June and all of sudden you’re $30,000 in the hole [to start the year].”

Nichols said part of the problem was caused by money owed to the nutrition program by the state. She said the district is still owed $97,000 from January and $67,000 for February.

“Food, for example, has never been budgeted. According to this, it’s just expense line items. That’s where we got in trouble in years past,” Stone said. “If we’re to look at this in a vacuum, you’re $95,000 in the hole. How do we fix this?”

Another change could involve the breakfast service, now being offered at all the schools.

“We are losing money in the breakfast program.” Nichols said. “It’s not self-supportive and I just can’t figure exactly why.”

Nichols said she has made menu changes for this month in order to get more than 70 percent of students to take advantage of eating breakfast at school. She said if numbers did not improve, the district might cut the program next year.

Brian Mazjanis, Saccarappa Elementary School principal, said he has heard from parents that sending their children to school without feeding them breakfast is an adjustment they aren’t used to yet. Mazjanis and Nichols said all students have ample time to eat before school begins, even those who ride the bus.

“If the program doesn’t need to happen, then the program doesn’t need to happen and that’s fine,” Stone said.

Nichols said the district is meeting the healthy U.S. challenge for serving nutritious foods to students, but work still needs to be done, like adding a salad bar to the high school. There is already a salad bar at the middle school, and this week the elementary schools will see their own salad bars, paid for by a grant, installed in the cafeteria.

Trends through the past few years show fewer students eating cafeteria meals during school, but Nichols believes there is an upswing taking place.

While many high school students were choosing the more expensive a la carte options, filled with snacks instead of meals, those items are now reflecting healthier choices made by students, and fruit parfaits and delicatessen sandwiches are filling the space once reserved for pre-packaged choices.

“The ones having the toughest time right now are the juniors and seniors and maybe the sophomores. They’ve grown up with certain things. The elementary and middle schools have embraced it very quickly,” Nichols said.

Changes in federal regulations – like the push for healthier eating – are supported for the most part by Nichols and her meals-from-scratch work, but there have been drawbacks. A maximum allocation of grains and meats make it difficult to serve sandwiches five days a week and keep portions of burger patties large enough to feed high school students.

Regulations mandate how much the cost of meals goes up each year. Last year the price of lunch was raised by 5 cents. Nichols said this year it again must be raised at least 5 cents, but she might suggest even more of a price hike to cover the cost of food. The price hike will not affect free and reduced lunches. Superintendent Marc Gousse said in some schools the price of reduced and free lunch is around 60 percent.

School districts that choose to take part in the lunch program get cash subsidies and donated commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for each meal they serve. In return, they must serve lunches that meet federal requirements, and they must offer free or reduced-price lunches to eligible children. Children from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130 percent and 185 percent of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents.