Distinguished Person of Honor

(Oct. 12, 1960 —              )

Cindy dedicated 31 years of service to Olathe School District’s Food Services, where she transformed student nutrition through innovation, advocacy, and compassion. Beyond her job requirements, she designed and implemented groundbreaking initiatives to increase meal accessibility and support student learning, including Universal Breakfast in the Classroom, Summer Meals, Second-Chance Breakfast, Traveling Grill Day, and Student Nutrition Councils. She established the district’s Temporary Meal Assistance program to ensure families falling outside free and reduced-cost eligibility still had access to nutritious meals. Cindy also founded the “Change Our Community” initiative, empowering students to support families in hardship through small acts of generosity. Her advocacy extended to state and national levels, where she championed practical, child-centered policies that improved meal program regulations for schools across the country. In recognition of her leadership, the district renamed the Families in Need Fund to the Cindy Jones Families in Need Fund upon her retirement in 2024. Her legacy lives on in the programs she built, the families she served, and the countless children whose learning and well-being were strengthened through access to healthy meals.