Sometimes all you need is a home-cooked meal to turn your day around.
That very idea, combined with a love of volunteering, has led Greene County resident Melanie Johnson to work with Lasagna Love, a nationwide nonprofit that aims to feed families, spread kindness and strengthen communities.
“Cooking for others is my love language,” Johnson told the Culpeper Times. “I grew up in the kitchen with my grandmothers, and so I definitely appreciate what it means to prepare a home cooked meal for someone.”
Johnson, who has been a volunteer with Lasagna Love since 2021 and has delivered almost 300 lasagnas during her tenure, oversees the organization’s efforts in Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Culpeper and Orange counties.
“Lasagna Love is a neighbors-feeding-neighbors kindness movement,” she said. “We match neighbors who like to cook with neighbors who could use a complimentary meal for any reason. We recognize the need is not just financial, so we cook for people who are dealing with medical situation, people that are going through a stressful time for any reason at all. We don’t ask a lot of questions about the need.”
Johnson said discretion and a non-judgmental attitude are driving forces of the organization’s impact.
“I think most of us can relate to a time in our lives where we were going through a situation,” she said. “We really want to remove the stigma that gets associated with asking for help, and so we empower anyone for any reason, to request meal at all, and our volunteers are very happy to cook for them, no judgments and no questions.”
Lasagna Love volunteers prepare lasagnas each week and deliver them free of charge and contact-free to the doorstep of local families who have requested a meal. Families can privately sign up to receive a meal with no questions asked. Once a family is matched with a volunteer, the volunteer coordinates preparation using the contact information provided and schedules a day and time for contactless delivery of the meal.
Lasagna Love currently delivers on average, 3,500 lasagnas each week. To date, the non-profit has delivered more than 530,000 meals.
“We hear so much feedback from families… It’s just so rewarding knowing that you have lifted the burden off of someone,” Johnson said.
Helping others without question is a guiding principle of Lasagna Love, which began at the start of the pandemic by one mom looking for a way to help others in her community. Rhiannon Menn and her daughter began making and delivering meals to families residing in her neighborhood in San Diego who were struggling with pandemic woes.
Menn realized what was needed in times of struggle was comfort and kindness and started preparing extra meals and offering to deliver them to neighbors’ doorsteps to provide a small break from everyday worries while assuring them that someone cared enough and was looking out for them.
Menn’s actions initiated a movement that has made its way across the country.
Johnson, who has recently relocated to the area from Nashville, Tennessee, said she has been impressed with how welcoming Culpeper has been. While Culpeper’s chapter of Lasagna Love only has three volunteers currently, she is hopeful it will grow quickly.
“I feel like there is a ton of potential in the Culpeper area right now,” she said. “It’s a very community-driven and community-minded town.”
Johnson said most of the organization’s volunteers sign up to feed one family one time a month, and through Lasagna Love’s volunteer portal, they can let organizers know where weeks they want to cook.
To learn more visit www.lasagnalove.org or email melanie.johnson@lasagnalove.org.