For about a year, Lee Bailleu has been baking up batches of lasagna .
“I like to cook and I like to help others,” said Bailleu.
The combination of those two things led Bailleu to volunteer for the organization, Lasagna Love, after she watched people online cook lasagna for them. When she saw a social media post seeking local “chefs,” she signed up.
“It’s totally based on the cook. They take care of their volunteers,” said Bailleu.
Volunteers are able to provide their own schedules and make their own decisions about how many lasagnas they make for families. Bailleu is currently the only volunteer chef for the organization in Kewanee.
Kelly Baker lives in Quincy, Ill. with her husband and two children and started baking lasagnas for Lasagna Love in January of 2022.
“When I started in 2022, it was part of a New Year’s resolution I had made to do more volunteer work in our local community.”
Like Bailleu, Baker saw a Facebook post and was instantly intrigued.
“I love to cook. Friends and family have always really enjoyed the lasagnas that I make. I felt like it was meant to be. Lasagna Love is an opportunity to volunteer to deliver a warm, homemade lasagna to a family or person in need. Lasagna is like a warm hug, so I thought it was just perfect,” she said.
When requests from the Quincy area began to slow down, Baker started doing outreach using social media pages to ensure that other communities knew about the organization and what they could offer.
That’s how Bailleu came aboard. Since there aren’t too many requests in Kewanee, she also delivers hot meals to the Galva, Cambridge and Annawan areas.
“You get matched every week if you’re available,” she said. “I like to do one family every other week. Twice a month, I will cook.”
Baker said that’s the good part of being a volunteer for Lasagna Love. The volunteer, not the organization, determines the level of involvement.
“They set their delivery radius, how often they want to provide a meal, and how many they want to provide,” she said.
Baker personally likes to do larger batch cooking, so she cooks about once every four to six weeks and delivers about five to 10 lasagnas the weekend she cooks. She’s also able to schedule deliveries around her children’s sports schedules.
Bailleu is enjoying her volunteer work and said she has no plans to stop.
“I love it. Everybody is so appreciative,” said Bailleu, adding that next week she plans to deliver meals to three area families.
Lasagna Love describes itself as a global nonprofit and grassroots movement that aims to positively impact communities by connecting neighbors with neighbors through homemade meal delivery. “We also seek to eliminate stigmas associated with asking for help when it is needed most. Our mission is simple: feed families, spread kindness and strengthen communities.”
The nonprofit provides 35,000 meals a week, and serves three countries and has over 45,000 volunteers. The idea for the organization began at the start of the pandemic when the founder of “Good to Mama” was looking for a way to help moms in her community. She and her toddler started making and delivering meals to families in the neighborhood who were struggling, whether that struggle was financial, emotional or simply a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Since joining the nonprofit, Baker has expanded her role. She now covers 15 counties in Illinois along the western border. She’s a local leader from Rock Island/Henry counties down to St. Clair County outside of St. Louis.
“I will say, it would be great to gain additional volunteers in the Kewanee area,” she said. And although they don’t see a great deal of requests from the area, she believes once word gets out, there could be more requests and a need for more chefs.
More information on how to request a lasagna or how to become a volunteer chef can be found at https://lasagnalove.org/impact/.
