VIDALIA — Inez White has long been a provider of sustenance for her family and many others.

“I’m the one that does the cooking around here,” Inez said.

“This one here,” she said, referring to her husband David White, “can’t cook anything.”

“I can boil water,” he quickly remarked in defense.

When The Dart landed on Georgia Street in Vidalia Sunday, the White family was just finishing up lunch after going to church at Riverside Baptist Church.

Inez was putting away the large amount of leftovers she always has after making a meal.

“She hasn’t learned how to cook for just four or five yet,” said Mark White, Inez and David’s son.

“She is used to making meals for 400.”

For approximately 20 years, Inez worked in the cafeteria for the Concordia Parish School District at Vidalia Lower Elementary.

She started when her daughter Misty White Britt began kindergarten because working at the school meant she had same hours as her children.

“It wasn’t always easy,” she said. “Sometimes the kitchen was so hot, but I loved it.”

Inez said she has always loved to cook, but it was the children who made the job such a special part of her life.

“We were always told by our manager that no matter what is going on in our lives, we have to put a smile on for those kids,” she said. “And that’s what I always did, but the kids made it easy.”

Now, in retirement, from time to time, she misses seeing the students every day.

“I would see the same children that I served around town and they would say to their parents, ‘Look there is the lunch lady, she cooks my food.’”

“Even though they didn’t know my name, every time that happened it made me feel really good.”

But each time she misses working in the cafeteria, she remembers her life now, endless hours gardening, hanging out with grandchildren and making way too much food for one sitting.

“Everybody always has leftover,” Inez said. “But that’s the way they like it.”