SAN ANTONIO -- For the last three decades, most staff and students at Carlos Coon Elementary could find Nancy Vasquez baking up cinnamon rolls or slicing up fruit behind the breakfast counter.
- Nancy Vasquez has been with NISD since the early 1990s
- Helps feed roughly 200 students each day
- Some of those students have been her family members
Now, the NISD cafeteria employee is front and center for hitting two major milestones, both professional and personal.
"I love to come to work and talk with the kids. Everything, everything for the kids I love," said Nancy Vasquez.
This year the lunchroom veteran celebrates 30 years with the school district. Vasquez says not much has changed in her lunch line since beginning her career in the early '90s.
"Everything is the same to me," she said.
On most mornings, she serves up to 200 students. Yet, through the years she has helped feed hundreds of thousands. Some of those hungry students have been her own family members. All of Vasquez's children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have attended the school at some point during her career.
"I like to know she is here," said Aylah Salazar, Vasquez's grandchild.
Aylah arrives to school with her grandma every day. The fourth-grader loves seeing Vasquez in the cafeteria line and considers it a family tradition. Yet, Aylah may be the last grandchild to see her grandma working at the school.
"I have one great, great, great [grandchild], but she is a baby. She is not going to get to see me there," said Vasquez.
In early February, Vasquez hit another milestone. She celebrated her 80th birthday.
"For me, it's a number. It's just a number and I don't feel it," she said.
Vasquez says her good health enables her to fulfill her duties at work every day. The kids also help keep her feeling young.
"It keeps me going. [Work's] the only thing I get to do and it keeps me moving and doing and thinking," Vasquez said.
As for retirement, Vasquez says she doesn't think about it much. She prefers to remain working for as long as her body allows her to.
