Jackie Venghaus (center-left) with the lunch ladies of Highland Lakes Elementary School in Granite Shoals. Venghaus was voted Favorite School Food Service Worker for the Marble Falls area in the 2025 Locals Love Us. Her fellow ladle wielders, Alicia Botello (left), Wendy Shoup, Judy Jowers, Patricia Rivera Castaneda, and Nubia Somozano-Medina, stepped in to ease the burden of the limelight. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Jackie Venghaus has worked in food service all her life, the past 30 years on the lunch lines of the Marble Falls Independent School District. She still loves it, and students and parents obviously love her. She was voted Favorite School Food Service Worker for the Marble Falls area by The Picayune Magazine readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners in the 2025 Locals Love Us contest.
Before her school cafeteria job, she worked in donut shops, delis, Mexican markets, and more. Her time as a lunch lady in MFISD, especially her current station at Highland Lakes Elementary School in Granite Shoals, is the best.
“I love it. I love the people I work with, and I love the little kids,” she said. “It’s like I’m a grandma to all of them.”
Venghaus moved to Marble Falls in 1985 and still lives in the same home she and her husband bought way back when. Shortly after arriving in the area, she agreed to substitute in the Marble Falls High School cafeteria and was promptly drafted as a full-time employee. She spent the next 25 years working her way up the ranks until she was the manager.
According to Venghaus, she wasn’t just a lunch lady at MFHS, she became known as “TheLunchlady,” solidifying her place in the high school experiences of generations of Mustangs.
After a brief two-year retirement, she “ran out of yard work to do” and accepted an invitation to sub at Highland Lakes Elementary School. Again, she was drafted into service and has been back at it for the past six years.
“When I got a chance to do elementary school, I was all for it,” she said. “That’s all I’ve known for these 30-something years.”
According to Venghaus, she was not expecting any kind of recognition for her role.
“I never would have thought ‘TheLunchLady’ would get something like (the 2025 Locals Love Us award),” she said. “I thought it was for someone else. It’s really an honor, and to recognize the school as well. I appreciate (the community) thinking about me.”
