For the love of lasagna: Locals spread kindness, one dish at a time
Courtesy of Becky Champlin
Becky Champlin delivered her first Lasagna Love meal on Sept. 7, 2021. Since then, she’s made and delivered at least one lasagna each week to families in need throughout Washington and Fayette counties.
Courtesy of Becky Champlin
Becky Champlin’s lifelong love for cooking began when she was 5, a skill learned from her grandmother that she’s passed down to her own children and grandchildren. The Uniontown woman began volunteering with Lasagna Love in September 2021.
Courtesy of Lasagna Love
Rhiannon Menn, right, and daughter Cimorene prepare a lasagna in their home kitchen. Menn founded Lasagna Love amidst the pandemic as a way to uplift others and spread kindness.
Courtesy of Lasagna Love
Rhiannon Menn founded Lasagna Love in 2020, amidst the pandemic, as a way to spread kindness. Since its inception, Lasagna Love chefs have delivered more than 150,000 home-cooked meals to neighbors in need throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia.
Alittle lasagna goes a long way.
That’s the motivation behind Lasagna Love, a global nonprofit launched during the pandemic by Rhiannon Menn, founder of the motherhood website, “Good to Mama.”
When the world shut down, Menn and her daughter filled their days cooking for moms in their neighborhood. Gratitude for Menn’s small act of home-cooked kindness sparked an idea: Folks in other communities could probably use a warm meal, and people with time on their hands might want to cook for those in need.
Lasagna Love spread like gooey ricotta over long, frilly noodles from Menn’s San Diego home (she’s now based in Hawaii) to Australia and beyond.
And volunteers in Washington and Fayette counties deliver homemade lasagna to locals in need every week.
“One of my Pampered Chef friends posted at the beginning of September that she had just joined the organization. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I love to make lasagna,'” said Becky Champlin, a Uniontown resident whose passion for cooking goes back to childhood. “I loved the idea behind it. I would volunteer to cook at cast parties for my daughter’s musicals, but this is a totally different ballgame. I’ve never done anything on this large of a scale, this organizational scale.”
While a massive undertaking – more than 1,500 volunteers have fed 24,000 Pennsylvanians to date – the concept is simple.
Volunteers register as Lasagna Love chefs online, where they can set their cooking availability and delivery radius (Champlin delivers within 30 miles of her home, while Karen Quarture, of Washington, has a five-mile radius).
Those in need of a meal, for any reason, request a lasagna online.
“We don’t discriminate,” said Kelly Andolina, regional director for New York and Pennsylvania. “We have people that are working through an illness, that aren’t up for cooking. Food insecurity is still at a high. There’s all different kinds of reasons. Somebody’s having a tough day – request a meal.”
Each Monday, volunteer chefs are matched with a family or person in need. They strain noodles, layer pasta with meat and ricotta. Of course, allergies and dietary restrictions are taken into consideration – one time, Champlin said, she substituted Greek yogurt for ricotta.
Chris Kachmar, Lasagna Love’s SWPA regional leader, said about 500 people are registered as volunteer chefs in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
“Five hundred sounds like a lot, but it’s not. In reality, I only have about 150 volunteers every week that are willing to do it,” said the Cranberry-based volunteer, noting the region averages 150 to 200 lasagnas weekly. “I always have requests I can’t fill. I don’t have a problem getting requests. There’s a lot of people in need.”
Need looks different to everyone. Moms readjusting to office work may not have time to cook for their families every evening. Someone may be battling a serious illness. And then, of course, there’s the ever-present issue of food insecurity.
“I don’t understand, in a country as rich as ours, that we have people that are starving, don’t have enough food,” said Andolina.
The need for home-ooked meals surprised Kachmar, who until joining Lasagna Love did not know so many in this region went without food each day. It’s the notes accompanying requests that opened her eyes.
“Some of them are just gut-wrenching,” said Kachmar. “You wonder how some people survive. It just makes you realize how blessed you are.”
She said that while Greene County is not yet represented by a lasagna chef, her lone volunteer in Fayette – Champlin – and one of her Washington chefs, Quarture, are fantastic.
Quarture joined the program about four months ago, when she scrolled past a Facebook post. She delivers one lasagna each week to a nearby requester.
“I’m really fortunate and I wanted to give back,” said Quarture. “I work retail, so I never know when I’m available. I love to cook. I thought this would be easy for me because I can do it on my own time.”
The Washington resident said she’s got lasagna-baking down to a science. When her request comes in on Monday, she checks for dietary restrictions. Quarture spends one evening prepping, freezes the lasagna overnight, and bakes off the delicious meal in the morning before dropping it off at her match’s home.
“I never think about not being able to feed my family. You don’t realize how hard it can be out there, and it might not be monetary reasons,” Quarture said. “If it helps one more person not have to worry about something.”
Food brings people together, and Lasagna Love breaks down the barriers that often keep people from the help they need.
“I look at lasagna as being just such a labor of love. It makes the family feel so good. There’s someone out there who truly cares about them,” said Andolina. “What better way to help someone than food?”
She said the organization is still growing and hasn’t yet branched out to all the communities in need. Some areas, like Washington, Greene and Fayette, could still use volunteers.
“We need volunteers so badly in this area,” said Champlin. “It pays back a hundred-fold. There’s a big need in our area. I look forward every Monday to seeing who I get to cook for that week. It’s a very humbling experience.”
For more information, or to register as a Lasagna Love chef or request a meal, visit https://www.lasagnalove.org/.