People Started Giving Homemade Lasagnas To Neighbors. What Happened Next Was Incredible.

In a personal essay for HuffPost, Lasagna Love co-founder and executive director Andria Larson reflects on what it takes to sustain the people and organizations behind neighbor-to-neighbor care.

Compassion is there. The resources are harder to find.

Lasagna Love began with neighbors offering homemade meals to other neighbors. Since 2020, that simple act has grown into a network of more than 61,000 volunteers who have delivered over 750,000 lasagnas, reaching about 3 million people.

But the ability to help has limits. Volunteers buy ingredients and cover the costs of cooking and delivery themselves. In her essay, Andria shares that 19,328 volunteers had paused their volunteering, most citing the rising cost of ingredients. People can still want to help and need to step back when their grocery budgets no longer stretch far enough.

“Americans haven’t stopped caring, but the willingness to help and the ability to afford helping are different things.”

The work behind every connection

A homemade meal may be freely given, but the connection that makes it possible takes resources. Technology, coordination, staffing, and volunteer support all help neighbors find one another. Small and midsize nonprofits need the capacity to manage those responsibilities well, even when they don’t have large departments or teams behind them.

Andria’s essay looks beyond Lasagna Love to the pressures facing community organizations more broadly. Volunteers and nonprofit teams keep showing up, but their resourcefulness shouldn’t be mistaken for an unlimited supply of time, money, or expertise. Sustained support helps organizations respond to need while carrying out their work responsibly.

Read the full story: “People Started Giving Homemade Lasagnas To Neighbors. What Happened Next Was Incredible.”

Originally published in HuffPost