Valerie Bossie Hangs Up Her Apron

Serving 3,000 lunches a week for the past 26 years has kept Valerie Bossie running at a good clip. But come this summer (and nearly 2.5 million noontime meals later), Val will take her pace down a notch (or two or three!).

Val, director of Hamden Hall Food Services, is retiring this June.

“I’ll miss the kids—especially the little ones,” she said. “They were the rewarding part of the job.”

Val, who worked in the food service business before her arrival at Hamden Hall in Fall 1992, has seen a lot of positive changes in the school cafeteria (aka Lender Refectory).

“We’re serving healthier food with more vegetarian options,” Val said. “We have hired more professional chefs. We have a food services committee comprised of administrators who advise us, and we work with the student government to learn more about the kinds of food they want.”

More falafel and tofu say the Upper Schoolers.

As for the younger students, Val quips they favor anything that comes out of a fryolator.

As for Val’s proudest accomplishment? No allergic reactions in more than a quarter century!

Her personal pride and joy? She and her husband, Tom, who works in the Hamden Hall facilities department, have a daughter, Margaret, age 21. The Bossie Family literally called Hamden Hall “home” for 13 years as they lived in an apartment on campus until 2005. Margaret attended Hamden Hall from PreSchool through ninth grade.

As for Val’s new life of leisure, she plans to focus on her love of all things crafty—her specialties being machine embroidery and paper cutting. Hamden Hall, by the way, extends a nod of appreciation to Val for donating her time and talent in creating items for our fundraisers over the years—notably flags for our Annual Golf Tournament and the three quilts she made from squares designed by the little ones (PreK and K) that sold at Valentine Bake Sales.

After managing her final faculty luncheon in mid-June, Val says she’s heading to New Portland, Maine, where the family has a lake cottage. This will be the first summer in the six years of owning the property that Val won’t be rushing “back home” in August to get things cookin’ for the new school year.

Head of School Bob Izzo says Val’s talents across the board will be missed.

“When you talk about someone working hard, you are talking about Val Bossie,” Mr. Izzo said. “She’s balanced a lot of platters over the years—no pun intended—as we call upon our food service staff to not only serve daily lunches to our students and faculty, but also cater so many of our events in the early morning, evenings, and on the weekend. Val has done an outstanding job, and she certainly deserves time now to relax. We wish Val the best in her retirement.”