Homemade lasagna helps take a bite out of local food insecurity
In her bright Calabasas kitchen, Ellen Klinenberg is snapping no-boil lasagna noodles in half and stirring a simmering pot of tomato sauce on the stove. Her moves are well choreographed with a familiar speed and grace. I’m in awe.
Klinenberg is the volunteer leader of the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County area for Lasagna Love, a national nonprofit of 45,000 volunteer home chefs who create honest-to-goodness home-cooked meals that are delivered in person to those in need.
Rhiannon Menn, a mom who wanted to make a difference in her community, started Lasagna Love at the beginning of the pandemic. The nonprofit now operates nationwide and in Canada and Australia. Since 2020, Lasagna Love volunteers have cooked and delivered more than 350,000 homemade lasagnas to people in need, feeding 1.5 million people, says Wendy Agudelo, a volunteer lasagna chef who handles publicity and communications for the organization.
WHY LASAGNA?
“It is one of America’s most famous comfort foods and one that feeds many, ultimately delivering a feeling akin to a warm hug when needed most,” says Agudelo. “Rhiannon also knew she could make more than one lasagna at a time to feed multiple families.”
The Lasagna Love process is simple: Requesters can log onto a website once a month and answer questions to determine their eligibility. Local leaders review the requests and match that person/family to a volunteer chef in the area who can make, bake and deliver a meal.
In the Valley, volunteer chefs are all ages, ranging from stay-at-home moms and dads to working professionals and retirees. Their cooking skills range from average to gourmet; the common denominator is that they enjoy providing a nourishing meal for others.
Klinenberg has been involved in the group since 2020 and typically makes lasagna twice a month. She found that cooking for others has helped her combat her empty nest syndrome after her three grown daughters left home. It’s also an easy way for her to give back to her community, she says.
“This smells wonderful!” I say, peering into a pot of sauce that bubbles with bright red tomato-y goodness. I’m here this morning to help Klinenberg make multiple trays of the classic layered cheese and noodle dish that she’ll deliver this afternoon to food-insecure families and individuals.
We are making meat lasagna with lots of veggies. Klinenberg is a big advocate for making her lasagnas as nutritious as possible, she tells me, especially if they’ll be eaten by kids who might not like vegetables. She grinds the vegetables into the sauce, a well-known mom trick that always works.
“I use whatever vegetables I have on hand,” she says, rattling off today’s additions of onions, spinach and zucchini. Fresh herbs and garlic are also part of the recipe.
“The meat sauce is separate,” she says, pointing to a big pot releasing its zesty aromas into the room. “I do this to make sure the ratios are right for the different pans of lasagna.”
Klinenberg likes her lasagnas to be “good and hearty.” One of the great aspects about Lasagna Love, she explains, is that you can make lasagnas as fancy or as basic as you want. It’s the chef ’s choice. Lasagna Love offers many recipes to help chefs get started.
While Klinenberg humbly describes her lasagnas as simple, there is one ingredient that sets them apart: her homemade sauce. Every fall, Klinenberg heads to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark and acquires large quantities of Roma tomatoes. Last year it was 75 pounds.
“Within a day or two, I had multiple pots on the stove cooking,” she explains. “I freeze the sauce in Ziploc [plastic] bags and use it throughout the year. Sure, I could buy jarred sauce, but I prefer this.”
Today, Klinenberg will construct two large pans for families and a slew of individual trays for community clients such as the North Valley Caring Services, a nonprofit that serves residents in the Northeast San Fernando Valley area.
Klinenberg makes space on her kitchen island for an assembly line. Aluminum trays, bowls of cheese and dried noodles are nearby. First a layer of sauce, followed by noodles and then meat sauce. Klinenberg uses a small spatula to paint the noodles with ricotta cheese. Just the cheese, she says, no egg. The simpler the better. As the layers are piling, I ask if she made lasagna when her girls were young.
“No,” she says with a laugh. “It wasn’t part of my dinner repertoire. To be honest, I don’t really like lasagna that much.” She explains that her daughter Jamie at 8 years old ate lasagna for the first time at a friend’s house.
She asked her mom to make it at home. Of course, Klinenberg did, and says Jamie is still just as excited for lasagna today. “In fact, all three of my girls hope that I have ‘a match’ when they are home for a visit,” Klinenberg says. “Lasagna has come around full circle in this family.”
HOME-COOKED WITH LOVE
Lasagna Love chefs know only a little about the requesters but there can be interactions at drop-off, like a wave or brief conversation. “Sometimes requesters can feel embarrassed; it can be hard to ask for help,” explains Klinenberg.
The online notes that requesters write can be heartbreaking. One recent note said: “‘My 16-year-old daughter went to bed hungry last night.’ That tears you apart,” she says. “No child should go to bed hungry.”
As the area leader, Klinenberg wants to make sure that people don’t have to go without dinner. She is on the hunt for more chefs to help fill requests that grow more numerous every month. (I’m now one of those volunteers!)
Chefs can give as much time commitment as they want—and set the limits on how far they will drive to deliver. Her delivery drive is often during rush hour, but she takes advantage of sitting in traffic by talking to her daughters.
Once the large family lasagnas are baking, Klinenberg moves onto the individual trays. I’m in charge of painting the ricotta and we get a good rhythm going. We talk about how such a small act of kindness and comfort can be so meaningful.
Klinenberg sums it up: “We are a group of people who want to do something nice for someone who needs something nice done for them. Period.”
- To learn more about volunteering for Lasagna Love or requesting a lasagna, visit LasagnaLove.org.
NOODLING AROUND
San Fernando Valley Lasagna Love Stats
About 50
Volunteer chef families
About 50
Meals delivered monthly to families in need. (This does not include North Valley Caring Services (NVCS), which receives lasagnas as needed.)
200
Lasagnas made by San Fernando Valley volunteer chefs for NCVS in honor of National Lasagna Day in July.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Brenda Rees is a writer living in Eagle Rock. Originally from Minnesota, she fondly remembers how Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup was a kitchen staple.
