Leaving a legacy of commitment
In 47 years of serving Dallas ISD Food & Child Nutrition Services, Brenda Jackson can count on one hand how many days she’s missed work—just one. In an era where job-hopping is the norm, her colleagues still marvel at her reliability, because for Jackson, the job was never just about serving meals—it was about serving people.
This past December, Jackson—who was the food service assistant at Maria Luna Food Service Facility—hung up her apron one final time. Her story with the district began in 1978 at two schools, the now defunct Pearl C. Anderson Middle Learning Center and David Crockett Elementary School.
At David Crockett, Jackson said she was more than a staff member; she was the keeper of the keys. Her manager, who has since passed away, trusted her to open the building while the city was still dark.
“She asked me, she said, ‘You don’t mind coming in at five?”’ Jackson recalled. “She gave me the key to open up. I’d come in ahead and set up everything in the cafeteria so when the cafeteria staff came in, everything was ready. Then, when it was time for the kids to come in, they’d eat their breakfast.”
Jackson’s true impact happened in the quiet moments between the serving lines. She didn’t just see students as numbers; she saw them as children who sometimes needed a mother’s touch. She remembers one particular student at Crockett who would often arrive at school without lunch money and in need of clean clothes.
“One kid didn’t have any money, so I said, ‘We’re gonna feed him anyway.’ He would come in dirty, so we’d go back there and get some uniforms to put on him,” Jackson said. “Later, his mother came and told me, ‘You did a beautiful job with my son.’ He went to college and got married, and every time he sees me now, he says he misses me. He says I was the thing that helped him move on.”
While Jackson’s work life was defined by her commitment to the district, her personal life is currently defined by her commitment to her husband of 56 years. The decision to retire was born out of the need to care for him as he battles cancer and recovers from a grueling back surgery that nearly cost him the ability to walk.
“I didn’t plan to retire yet, but I had to. My husband has cancer, and he had a surgery on his back to remove it,” she said. “The doctors told him if he didn’t have the surgery, he wasn’t going to walk. Now I come home, I get him up, and we walk together. I tell him, You’ve got to crawl before you walk.’”
During a retirement celebration in December, where Jackson was honored with several service awards, Debora Rowley, executive director of Food and Child Nutrition Services, offered a moving tribute to Jackson’s unbreakable work ethic:
“For all but one day, there were no missed mornings, no sick days and no maybe tomorrow, just reliability and work ethic that sets the example for all of us here,” Rowley said. “Think about what 47 years mean: they mean generations of students and countless co-workers who have learned from her wisdom, her humor, and her reliability. They mean consistency, commitment, and love woven into the fabric of this entire department.”
In nearly half a century, Jackson has seen food services in the district change from cooking from scratch in old-fashioned appliances to preparing foods in kitchens outfitted with the modern technology that has eased labor in the kitchen and improved efficiency.Through the shifting menus and new buildings, her advice to those following in her footsteps remains timeless.
“They tell me, ‘I want to be like you,’ and I tell them to be themselves. They can’t be like me. I say they have to give something the district has never had before: them,” she said. “When they’re working, they don’t come here to make friends; they come here to do a job, and to do it well.”
Jackson started 2026 as a district retiree but her impact on the people she describes as family continues. From the administrators to the students who still stop her in the grocery store to give her a hug, her legacy, as Rowley described it, isn’t just the meals she prepared.
“It’s the comfort you gave, the mornings you brightened, and the students and staff you encouraged along the way,” Rowley said.
