Lifelong Service to Students

Teachers, administrators and staff are often celebrated for their service when they retire. For Evie Hess, school cafeteria manager in Sailorway Middle School in Vermilion Local Schools, OH, her dedication to students was marked with a regional Manager of the Year award!

Evie worked for 30+ years to make lunchtime healthy and fun for students. To make sure menus were kid-approved, she launched a Student Nutrition Advisory Council, working with the students to get feedback. The project was so popular that more than 60 students apply to serve on SNAC each year.

Being close to students for 3 decades, Evie was also sensitive to their needs. She partnered with the school nurse on a “Never Closed” breakfast program so students feeling ill or missing breakfast could visit the cafeteria to ease a stomachache.

To ensure community members are aware of the healthy choices in school meals, Evie coordinated an annual district-wide “Back to School” breakfast with fine china, tablecloths and a wide variety of healthy school food. She also launched a popular “Grandparent to Breakfast” event – all of her celebrations through the year were complete with decorations, special menu items and costumes for cafeteria staff!

As an active School Nutrition Association of Ohio Board Member, Evie was proud to stay on top of developments in the school nutrition industry and share best practices and updates with her staff and colleagues throughout the district.