Maine group honors WHS Kitchen Manager as ‘School Nutrition Manager of the Year’

By Masha Yurkevich

It takes a lot of devotion, passion, and patience to work in one place for 24 years. Jackie Rallis, Manager of the Windham High School Kitchen, certainly has that and has been recognized as Maine’s 2024 School Nutrition Manager of the Year by the Maine School Nutrition Association.

Whitney Thornton, past president and communications chair
of the Maine School Nutrition Association, presents
Windham High School's Jackie Rallis with the '2024
Maine School Nutrition Manager of the Year Award.'  
SUBMITTED PHOTO

In being chosen for this honor, Rallis was presented with a plaque and a bouquet of flowers, as well as a certificate. As the WHS Kitchen Manager, Rallis manages the eight women that work for her including a cook, a baker, and six assistant cooks.

Rallis started her career from the ground up. She began in the cafeteria at Windham Primary School, then took a position at the Windham Middle School cafeteria, and then when a position opened up at Windham High School, Rallis says that she leaped at the opportunity.

“While I was working at the high school, the kitchen manager retired and I took her job,” Rallis says.

Born and raised in Maine, Rallis has been living in Windham since 1999.

“We lived in Windham and my children were attending Windham schools and I thought that a job like this would be the best to have the same schedule as my children,” says Rallis. “Even though my kids are not in school anymore, I’ve still kept going at it.”

Rallis says that working in school food service is a great job and she loves it.

“It is rewarding to make the students healthy and nutritious meals, and the fact that they actually like them,” she says. “The children get excited and like to talk about food; they tell us whether they like it or don’t like it, and sometimes we do food tastings to get the opinion of the students on whether they like it or not. Sometimes we have kids specifically ask for certain things to be put on the menu that they like that we have not had in a while. They feel free asking us questions, we feel free asking them questions, and we have a great time all around.”

Rallis was pleasingly shocked when she was announced as the recipient of the 2024 Maine School Nutrition Manager of the Year Award.

“Every year, there is the Maine School Nutrition Association conference, which took place in Sugarloaf this year,”, says Rallis. “I had no idea that I had been nominated, so it was a shock when I found out I got it,” she says. “My boss, Jeanne Reilly, who is the Director of School Nutrition at RSU 14’s Windham Raymond School District, had filled out whatever necessary paperwork had to be filled out, nominated me, and I got it.”

This award is presented annually by the association, whose goal is to provide healthy meals and promote nutrition education to Maine's school children. Dedicated to its mission of making sure that no Maine child goes hungry, the association is fortunate to have universal feeding at no cost in Maine and proud that Maine is one of the first states in the nation to provide statewide free meals for all children.

Rallis received the award for her tireless dedication to providing exceptional meals to students attending WHS and for her leadership and support of the kitchen staff there.

She is a mother of three, as well as a grandmother, and said that she enjoys being outdoors and kayaking, hiking, and walking when not working in the WHS kitchen.

“I love my job,” she says. “It is hard work, but it is rewarding.” <