Ms. Jo's Story: Whittier Elementary School Kitchen Manager Brings Food and Hope to Students and Community

By John Levesque

Jo-Nell Simonian is retiring, but she’s not shy. She has been a tireless and outspoken advocate for food justice within Seattle Public Schools “because everybody should have access to healthy food.”

Ms. Jo, as everyone at Whittier Elementary School knows her, also has a soft spot for the Ballard Food Bank. As kitchen manager at Whittier the past seven years, she regularly collected food that might otherwise go to waste at the end of the school week and transported it — on her own time and at her own expense — to the food bank a mile and half away.

Ms. Jo quietly called it a career on Dec. 16, the last day of school before winter break. She wanted no retirement party, no hoopla. But she did allow Principal Cindy Watters to create a donation page on Ballard Food Bank’s website. Anyone who’d like to donate in Ms. Jo’s honor can do so here.

A description on the tribute page declares: “While her title is kitchen manager, she is much more than that. She is a listening ear, a breakfast friend, a social worker, author, artist, and friend. We wish her well in her retirement with hope it will be filled with bike rides, camping trips, visits to family and most of all great joy!”

Ms. Jo

A fiber artist and children’s author whose dedication to the healthy development of young minds and bodies is abundantly apparent in her kind eyes and gentle spirit, Ms. Jo says her favorite memory of Whittier will be the kindness and courtesy of its students.

“I have to say these kids are pretty incredible,” she said on the day before her retirement. “They’re so respectful, so kind.”

Ms. Jo believes that’s largely due to the influence of Principal Watters, who returned the compliment by suggesting Whittier’s beloved “lunch lady” is the real role model.

“Ms. Jo,” Watters said, “has more integrity in her little pinky than anyone I know.”

Ms. Jo wept briefly when students at the 10:30 a.m. lunch period on Dec. 15 filled the cafeteria with an exuberant “thank you, Ms. Jo!”

“I knew this was going to happen,” she blubbered, wiping away tears.

She quickly went back to work, patiently describing the day’s menu choices — burrito, cheese enchilada, Ethiopian lentil stew — and smiled through a few more tears when a young student looked up at her and said, “I’m going to miss you.”