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Strengthening Communities

Strengthening Communities

Providing love and lasagna!

Lasagna Love chefs share nourishment and kindness.
Lasagna Love chefs share nourishment and kindness.
Atlanta founders Kelley Kolling (left) and Kirsten Glaser provided meals for first responders to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Atlanta founders Kelley Kolling (left) and Kirsten Glaser provided meals for first responders to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

In mid-2020, Buckhead resident Kelley Kolling and East Cobb resident Kirsten Glaser learned about Lasagna Love while listening to segments on WXIA-TV’s evening news and NBC’s “The Today Show.” They decided to establish a group in Georgia to provide lasagna to people in need and spread kindness. “It started with just the two of us and has grown to more than 600 ‘chefs’ who deliver an average of 4,000 meals a week,” Kolling says.

Lasagna Love quickly spread on social media and became a movement in all 50 states, Canada and Australia, powered by more than 20,000 chefs around the world.

The concept took root in San Diego when Rhiannon Menn saw some of her neighbors struggling due to job layoffs, loss of childcare or COVID-19 and began making trays of lasagna that she delivered outside their doors.

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the organization’s nationwide focus was on first responders, and Kolling and Glaser delivered meals to Fire Stations 21 and 27 in Buckhead. “It’s a hard day for anyone wearing a uniform, and we wanted to share love along with some comfort food,” Kolling says.

Her most memorable recipient was a single mother with two young boys who lost her job as a result of COVID- 19. “She told me that our lasagna made 14 separate meals for her family when otherwise they might have gone hungry.”

For more information, visit lasagnalove.org.

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