By Josh Siatkowski | Lead Writer
Baylor Eats honored one of its own Thursday afternoon, surprising Penland employee Linda Benson as she crossed 40 years serving students in Baylor’s dining halls.
As the lunch rush wrapped up, staff from across campus’ three dining halls gathered near the Penland salad bar, waiting to greet Benson with a cake, an anniversary gift, a card and a round of applause.
“If you can imagine the number of students that Linda has served throughout the years, the number of smiles that she’s put on the faces of students throughout the years — thousands, if not millions,” said Michael Sanders, residential district manager for Baylor Eats, as he thanked Benson for her service.
Benson, a Waco native and graduate of Jefferson Moore High School, has worked in Penland Dining Hall since 1986. Today, she serves as a shift supervisor, knows many students by name and loves to joke around with her team, who affectionately call her “Miss B.”
“My favorite thing about her is that she loves her job, and she likes to help people,” Tiia Duffey, a cook at Penland, said. “She’s real close to a lot of students here. Mind you, she’s been here 40 years, so she knows mostly everybody in here.”
In her time at Baylor, Benson has become a mentor and role model for fellow staff, and Duffey said she hopes her four years at Penland can one day rival Benson’s 40. But things weren’t always easy for Benson.
“When I first got here, I didn’t have a way here, so I had to walk from North 15th to here,” she said. “It was a struggle at first. But I didn’t give up. I kept going.”
She also had some help along the way. Elaine Battle, who celebrated her own 40th anniversary with Baylor’s dining halls last spring, and Dee Garrett gave Benson free rides to work. When Benson tried to pay them back, they refused, leading Benson to sneak money inside their belongings to repay the favor.
“You don’t find people like that,” Benson said of the two.
In an interview last spring, Benson also recalled her first manager’s kindness.
“When I first started, I didn’t have money to get my work shoes,” Benson said in April. “I had some red Reeboks, and I wore them. And one day I got ready to go home, and [my manager] handed me a box, and it was a pair of work shoes for me.”
Since she’s held tightly to her friends’ generosity, Benson has also given back herself. She and her husband Charles started their own ministry, A New Change in Direction, which supports at-risk individuals like the elderly, substance users and the homeless. Benson and her husband have also frequently attended Church Under the Bridge for the last 15 years, where they hand out care packages to patrons.
Even for students who only know Benson as the smiling face behind the salad bar or the omelet station, her passion for service is hard to miss, as it’s a common thing she tells students as they walk by.
“I tell them, ‘Don’t forget, reach back and pull somebody up,’” Benson said.
As the celebration continued, Sanders said he hoped to get Benson for another 40 years. While Benson said she might not make it that far, she has no plans to stop. Food has always been part of her life, and always will be.
“My granny took me to the kitchen because I used to always peep to see what they were doing,” Benson said. “And so one night, she popped me in the back of my head. [She said], ‘You supposed to be asleep. Get on in there. Learn how to peel the potatoes while you peeping.’ And from then on, I pulled that chair up to that stove and got cooking. So here I am.”
