Hazel Jackson is a retired Pittsburgh Public School teacher who remains active in her senior years as a singer and model. She also draws on her lifelong love of seeing people fellowship during meals to train young adults in the food service ministry at St. James AME Church in the Lincoln-East Liberty area of Pittsburgh. At home, it was customary for Hazel and James, her late husband, to have extended family and friends at the dinner table—often uninvited but always welcome.