This cafeteria manager continues to feed families in need despite school shutdown

Yahoo Life spoke with Yolanda Fisher, cafeteria manager at T.W. Browne Middle School, who works diligently on the frontline to assemble and distribute meals to the families in her community.

Video Transcript

YOLANDA FISHER: When a patron drives up, some are depressed. They never thought that they would be getting food on a food line. But I let them know there is no shame in needing help.

But when you see my smiling face and my ladies' smiling face, you can't help but smile back. We try to greet everyone that way.

My name is Yolanda Fisher. I'm the cafeteria manager at TW Browne Middle School in Dallas, Texas.

When the coronavirus first broke out, we were going on spring break. And when they called me and they was letting me know, hey, what do you all think about working on the line, feeding the kids? And they also paid us while we were staying home, but I still decided, you know, to risk it. Got a mask, and I came to work.

I called a couple of ladies to see if they wanted to come to work as well. I've been working there for 26 years, so I know, some of the kids that have and some of the kids that don't. I really wanted to help those that didn't that I know that the school is their only meal. And if we were closed for more than that week, they would really be in dire need.

We originally thought the program would be just for the kids at my school, but the need got so great to where we feed the community. If an adult needs a meal and they ask for a meal, we feed the adults as well.

I started out, I only made maybe 75 meals, and then each week it would go up. Now I'm at 1,400 meals.

We don't know how many are going to drive up that day. Even though I prepared 1,400, it might be 1,700. So while I have a team outside giving out meals, I still have a team on the inside bagging up more meals just in case. I just don't want to turn someone away or down because I know what it's like not to have, and I try to make sure that they do have and it's quality.

Me and the ladies grab a bag, go through, filling it with the 15 meals that they need. It's awesome what they get in there. The bags are steady growing every week as well.

My team first started out with just two of us, and now we're up to 10, the limit of how many there needs to be in a confined space. We're all girl. We're a girl group.

American Federation of Teachers asked, could they write a story about me? And when they posted it online, it went viral. They asked me, could "Time" magazine call me? And I'm like, yeah, they can call me.

I told the ladies that they were coming to take pictures. They didn't believe me. Some cafeteria ladies from Dallas on the cover? Yeah, right. And it came out. A lot of people is like, is it real? And they started going on the "Time" website, and they started seeing it. It is like, it is real. I'm like, yeah, it's real.

My biggest reward will always be the kids because once the accolades from the public go away, I'm going to still have my babies to greet me, to thank me, to say how wonderful the food is. I also let them know that you don't have to worry. Long as this virus is going on, we going to be out here every Thursday with the meal. So we ready for that long haul.