For Americans struggling with food insecurity, a delivered meal can be a godsend. In Virginia alone, 8% of the population deals with food insecurity per recent estimates from Feeding America. Amy Hewes, director of memory support and programming at Ingleside’s Westminster at Lake Ridge, saw an opportunity for her residents to fight hunger in the Lake Ridge area through a collaboration with Lasagna Love, a nonprofit organization that delivers pasta dishes to those experiencing food insecurity, after learning about it on Facebook.
“I tried it out myself, I signed up as a volunteer and then found a recipe that was accessible enough for us to do in a group setting with a limited amount of time,” said Hewes. “It’s worked out really well. I brought this project with me when I joined Westminster Lake Ridge, so the group here has been doing it since February of this year and they do the project once a month.”
The project not only provides hearty meals to people in need, it provides Westminster Lake Ridge residents the opportunity to make a difference in their community without ever leaving their campus. Hewes notes that most of the residents were engaged in civic life in a variety of ways before arriving at the facility. Lasagna Love makes it easy for them to stay connected with the world around them.
“Everybody is a retired teacher or volunteered in their church or were leaders in the community in some way, shape or form,” said Hewes. “With the cognitive things they have going on, it’s just become harder and harder for them to give back the way that they’ve done their whole lives. I call it a therapeutic program because everything we do has a purpose but, specifically to the Lasagna Love Project, I think the biggest piece is giving [residents] a sense of purpose and being of service to the community. ”
The experience also provides important mental stimulation for residents. While the recipes force them to stay focused on the task at hand, they are not immune to some recipe improvisation.
“There’s a lot of cognitive work involved in putting the lasagnas together,” said Hewes. “Measuring out the sauce, they need to put half a cup in each layer so they have to figure out the math. Lots of motor tasks involve opening packages, and all the scooping and the smoothing, and then following the recipe is probably the most challenging part for our group.”
When the piping-hot lasagnas come out of the oven, Hewes and her team are ready to distribute them to grateful Virginians throughout the area. The team at Westminster Lake Ridge continues to fight food insecurity, one lasagna at a time.
“We have gotten some thank you notes from people,” said Hewes. “At the beginning of each lasagna-making session, we’ll talk about the project, who are we baking for today and read some of the thank you notes. For a lot of people, it brings back memories of their parents cooking for them or cooking for their kids. So it also sparks a lot of conversation and it’s a full sensory experience.”
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