Las Vegas non-profit working to connect neighbors with free meals

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - A group of volunteers in the valley are working together to connect neighbor to neighbor through a free meal.

Inside a North Las Vegas church, the non-profit came to life as part of a volunteer-run cook-it-forward movement called “Lasagna Love.”

“We match people’s requests for lasagnas with a local home chef,” said Valerie Armstrong, a stay-at-home mom, who started volunteering a year ago and is now the local leader.

“I feel like I am contributing outside the home, which is a big thing for me,” she shared with FOX5. “I struggled with postpartum depression. I feel like you can close yourself in your home and feel alone, but rather than that I opened myself up and found people in greater need.”

Now, Armstrong makes lasagnas twice a month.

“My church wanted to do some sort of service this season, so I said let’s make lasagnas, and they said let’s do it,” she said. “And they donated all the ingredients.”

Lasagna Love was created in 2020 after a Boston mom wanted to give her neighbors a free, comforting meal during the Pandemic.

The need hasn’t stopped.

Armstrong added, “We have over 300 requests and we have about 35 volunteers. So, we are a couple of months behind.”

On this day, 37 meals will be delivered to people in North Las Vegas.

“We are not changing lives, we are not feeding the hungry, but we are making people feel seen and cared for that normally don’t.”

Nearly 4,000 meals have been delivered to people in Southern Nevada. Lasagna Love as a whole has delivered more than 500,000 meals across the country.

If you’d like to volunteer or request a lasagna, visit https://lasagnalove.org/.

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