Denver lunch lady has been serving up kindness with meals for nearly half a century

By Sarah Horbacewicz

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    DENVER (KCNC) — Those who say breakfast is the most important meal of the day probably haven’t met Mary Dully. She’s celebrating 49 years of serving up school lunches in Colorado, now serving at Merrill Middle School.

For nearly half a century, Miss Mary (as she’s known around the halls), has spent every morning getting cafeteria meals ready. Each day, she prepares hundreds of fruit cups and pizza slices before her students walk in.

And if they say 10,000 hours of practice makes you an expert, well, Miss Mary’s a pro.

“It’s a way of reading books or being an artist or a musician or a writer. You love it. You do it every day, and you’re good at it,” Dully said.

Dully smiles wide before patiently asking each and every student how they’d like their meal, (even as some may bounce around in their barely contained lunch line excitement.)

If not by experience, you can also tell a lot about Dully’s dedication to her job by her commute — five buses every day just to see these kids.

“Two [busses] in the morning and three [busses] home,” Dully explained, “I’ve been doing it for 50 years. I’ll never stop. I love it. It’s a way of life.”

And now, thousands of pizza slices and milk cartons later, she’s watched just as many students grow up. Dully said that some students have even brought their parents in to meet her; others once brought her flowers after they graduated. But no matter the case after-school, during lunch Dully says the students always make her day.

And while Miss Mary might not be in a traditional classroom, she’s still teaching a master class in serving kindness.

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