Dallas

Dallas Cafeteria Workers Recognized by ‘Time' Magazine

NBCUniversal, Inc.

Every day Keke Lafayette and the team at TW Browne Middle School roll the dice headed into work.

"I have a daughter at home too and she's scared," said Lafayette, a cafeteria worker.

Their work may look like an assembly line by stuffing plastic bags with a weeks worth of food, but "assembly line" is so impersonal, it's not how they see it.

"We build bonds with the kids and sometimes they get personal and tell us, 'I'm hungry, I want seconds,' " said cafeteria manager Yolanda Fisher.

Only now, the kids aren't physically there to tell them.

"We're wondering if they're eating," said Lafayette.

"I'm not the cafeteria lady," said Fisher. "I'm a mother and we all have mothers and they're in the background pushing us, cheering us"

But this time, these moms got their recognition. 

They were captured  on the cover of 'Time' magazine, the faces of America's essential workers.

"I posted it and most people thought it was a joke," said Fisher of the honor.

"Then I noticed in the comments someone said 'No, it's really real, it's on Time.' It snowballed from there."

Honored to help, and like moms, they're not motivated by the kudos, just the kids. 

"It feels good, I see a lot of my babies and they just be waving and I wave back because I miss them," added Lafayette.

"It's hard for the workers who are transitioning to only give out food one day a week.  They say it safer for their kids but they'll miss their smiling faces." 

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