Celebration of Life: Peggy Hakala from Sodexo

by Colin Doherty

You gather a line at the entrance of Sodexo, and at the end of it you are greeted by a sweet lady named Peggy. She’ll ask you how the weather is, how your day has been or just how you are. All around campus Peggy, a Troy New Hampshire resident, is popular among the students due to her motherly nature. 

Peggy has worked at Sodexo for the past 12 years, and says she keeps coming back year after year because of the kids on campus. Peggy genuinely has a lot of love for every kid who walks through the doors to the cafeteria, and her favorite memory has always stayed the same.“The kids. The kids are the reason that I stay here. I just love them all,” she said.

(Photo: Colin Doherty)

According to Peggy, the only downside to her job is seeing the students leave year after year to graduation. “I hate to see them go, but I’m so happy for them. They spent so much time here so it’s good to see them move on to a career,” she said. It’s things like this that make many students think of Peggy as their mother away from home. 

“It’s just her everyday self that makes my day,” said senior Mackenzie Sylvester. “It’s more than just a job to her, and I love to see her walking into the cafe everyday.