Write a commentLasagna Love, in collaboration with Leadership Oswego County and CiTi BOCES, provided hot meals to over 800 people in Oswego County this weekend.
Lasagna Love, a 501(c)(3) founded in 2020 during Covid by a concerned mom in San Francisco, is built on the power of community to get through hard times. Their focus is on making a dent in food insecurity. To that end, they’ve delivered over 500,000 meals to people across the country.
“We like to think of lasagna as a warm hug,” said Joanne Nania. Nania is a Local Leader with Lasagna Love for Oswego County, as well as for other counties across Central New York. The group accepts food requests from households up to once a month with no income or other requirements to satisfy. After the request is submitted, the system matches the donor with a local volunteer who will work with the family on food preferences and coordinating delivery details.
“It’s very flexible for volunteer chefs,” said Nania. “Depending on the needs of the family, they may decide to deliver it prepped but not cooked, piping hot, frozen… whatever works best for the individual family and the chef.” Chefs can volunteer to cook every day, once a week, or once a month.
All ingredients are donated and chefs are volunteers, generally baking in their home kitchens. The organization has no paid staff. Because cross-contamination can’t be ruled out, the group does not accept requests from anyone with life-threatening allergies.
Approximately one in four people suffer from food insecurity in Oswego County according to the Food Bank of CNY. When Lasagna Love realized they had a backlog of meal requests in the county, they knew they needed to think bigger. So, in 2024, they began to work with Leadership Oswego County and CiTi BOCES on a plan.
Students in the CiTi BOCES culinary arts program volunteered their Saturday morning to prep, bake, and package lasagnas for over 800 area residents who have requested the assistance. Anna, one of the students in the program, said, “Not very many programs have the same opportunity to help the community as CiTi. I’ve helped more people through BOCES than I’ve helped anyone else in my entire life.”
At iHeart Oswego, we’d like to say thank you to Anna, Joanne, and all of the folks working to make a difference in our community!
For those interested in getting involved or who need to request a meal, visit lasagnalove.org.
