As I speak with Jasper County lunch lady Lora Semple, I’m instantly drawn in by her outgoing nature and infectious laugh. Her kindhearted personality is electric and seems to light up the room. While she’s technically the kitchen manager, Lora confesses she likes the term lunch lady, which many current and former students use as a term of affection for the impact she hopes she’s made on their lives.

Within seconds of speaking with Lora, I feel comfortable, as if I’ve known her my entire life. I realize the beauty of having a woman like Lora working in the Jasper County School kitchen, creating countless positive interactions with the county’s children day by day, meal by meal.

Lora not only provides the children of Jasper County Junior High School and High School with their daily nutrition but, whether cooking, serving, or overseeing her small but mighty staff, she also provides the students with a dose of love that sustains them throughout the rest of the school day.

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“It makes me feel good when I’m out shopping or something, and a kid I had in school and fed for years comes up and asks, ‘How are you doing, Lora?’ I can’t always remember their names, but I recognize them. And it makes me feel so good that they remember me. I love talking to the kids and getting to know them. That’s just part of the fun of it.”

If my rough napkin math is anywhere near accurate—and I will not promise it is—I guesstimate that Lora’s cooked and served just over five-thousand days of student breakfasts and another five-thousand days of lunches to her students over the last twenty-eight years. That is a total of ten-thousand meal-days and counting. Multiplying those meal-days by the number of students fed puts me well beyond the mathematical edge of my napkin. And if our conversation is any indication, she’s not slowing down soon.

Lora is the mother of three sons and a daughter—all graduates of Newton High School. She also has five grandchildren spread across three local school systems and shares that she went to work for the school system as something to do after her oldest started kindergarten.

Lora laughs and confesses that she didn’t grow up in Jasper County. But she quickly adds that she was only a quarter mile away from the county line, right over the north edge of Richland County. Lora smiles playfully and demonstrates her signature quick wit, sharing that her family shopped in Newton. She was fifteen miles from Olney and ten from Newton, so the choice was obvious. Despite the technicality of not living within the county line, she was and is a Jasper County girl.

“I think the way people in Jasper County care about each other makes this place special. Everybody pitches in if your house burnt down or you had a disaster on your farm. It’s a very giving community. I don’t feel like we’re a rich community financially. But we have a lot to give.” says Lora.

She adds, “You know so many people. It’s just a sense of family. Everyone comes together. I’ve got my family, I’ve got my church family, and I’ve got my school family. It’s a closeness; you get to know everyone over the years.”

Lora was initially hired to work at Sainte Marie Elementary, where she worked for eight years. They eventually converted the building to Pre-K and Kindergarten only, which forced Lora to transfer to the high school and junior high, and split her duties between the janitorial and kitchen staff until a full-time position became available. After a couple of years, she could shift to working full-time in the kitchen. She smiles proudly and adds that she’s worked here ever since and was recently promoted to kitchen manager.

As kitchen manager, Lora leads by example, supervising her staff as they are responsible for four lunch sessions spread across the junior high and high schools. Every day they provide four lunch options: a hot option, homemade pizza (she pridefully shares that they make fantastic chicken, bacon, and ranch pizzas), a cold sandwich option, and a full salad bar.

Lora has one part-time and one full-time employee and receives support from the district’s Kitchen Director if and as needed. With such a small staff, Lora is a working manager who cooks, serves, and cleans.

She laughs and says, “Sometimes I don’t think kids know what they’ve got here with all these options,” adding, “We had stuff like cooked spinach and soy-based hamburgers [when I was in school].”

After my time with Lora concluded, I reflected on a specific story she shared that demonstrates the power and beauty of having a woman like Lora on your team. While it’s one of many such stories she’s collected over just shy of three decades of service, I can’t help but wonder about the impact and potential change in a child’s life trajectory based on a random gesture of kindness when delivered at the right time and in the right way. When Lora started working at Ste. Marie Elementary, she asked a young girl what she planned to dress up as for Halloween. The girl shyly confessed that her father hadn’t been able to get her a costume. Lora says that after finishing her work day, she immediately went home, stole one of her husband’s white tee shirts, and hand-crafted a pair of wings. That next day, she presented the girl with an angel costume Lora had made with a mixture of love and crafting skills.

While Lora tries to brush the event as a ‘little thing,’ I can only assume the girl in question has never forgotten the generosity and love the lunch lady showed her. Just as Lora still cherishes the memory decades later.

I imagine a world where this little girl is all grown up and still resides in Jasper County. And maybe these two women bump into one another in one of the aisles of Martin’s IGA, and this grown-up version of that same, sweet little girl recognizes her lunch lady and asks her how she’s doing…