ARCHBALD, Pa. — Since the start of the pandemic, organizations and individuals have come up with all kinds of ways to raise money and to help people who are struggling right now, and one nonprofit out of California has made its way to Lackawanna County.
The rules are simple. You cook a homemade lasagna and deliver it to someone who lives near you. It's called Lasagna Love, and over the last 10 months, it's grown into a national movement.
"Lasagna to me sort of represents the ultimate comfort food, sort of like giving or receiving a homemade culinary hug, if you will," said Walter Hertman.
Walter Hertman lives in Archbald with his wife and two kids. He is one of the few Lasagna Love volunteers here in northeastern Pennsylvania and is trying to spread the word because of how rewarding it has been for him and his family.
"The lessons it teaches them in serving the community, in this case in quite a literal way, gives them a greater sense of purpose and meaning at a time when they really can't be together with their friends, in school, and doing the things they normally do," he said.
Volunteers who sign up to cook are called Lasagna Mamas and Papas because that's how this all got started; a stay-at-home mom in California wanted to help out the other moms in her neighborhood back when the pandemic first began.
"She started the organization just by delivering lasagnas to her neighbors who needed the extra help and found that people really wanted to help as well, so for her going from a couple people in her neighborhood to having over 12,000 volunteers across the country is crazy," said Megan Gotimer, Lasagna Love regional director.
Those volunteers are in 47 states across the country, in total, delivering more than 14,000 lasagnas to date.
"For me, something about this just really hit me. I think I really saw it as an opportunity to involve the family, get the kids involved, and really show them what it's like to do a simple action," Hertman explained.
You can either request a lasagna online or sign up to make one and get matched with a family near you.