The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furloughed, so she became ‘Lasagna Lady’
Michelle Brenner offered to make lasagna for any interested, used her $1,200 stimulus check to buy ingredients, and requests rolled in.
After Michelle Brenner was furloughed from her job at a menswear store in Gig Harbor, Wash., because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, she turned to comfort-food therapy.
Brenner, 45, made herself a huge pan of lasagna using her grandmother’s recipe. Then, in a moment of pride after shopping for groceries (including frozen lasagna) for some of her neighbors, she got on her community Facebook page and wrote that frozen, store-bought lasagna could not compare to the real Italian homemade deal.
“Hello favorite friends — I delivered a ton of frozen family-size lasagnas today,” Brenner wrote. “Now, this is not a problem by any means, lol. But you have a die-hard, full Italian lasagna lover living in your town.” She followed up with an offer: “If any of you want some fresh homemade, no calorie counting lasagna, please let me know and I will gladly prepare it,” she wrote.
Brenner set aside her $1,200 stimulus check to buy ingredients, and the requests soon began to trickle in.
First a retired neighbor showed up at her house, then an out-of-work friend came for a pan. After that, so many people started showing up, including strangers, that Brenner lost track.
Nearly three months and 1,200 pans later, Brenner is still at it, boiling noodles, cooking ground beef, mixing up tomato sauce and layering mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan.
About eight hours a day, seven days a week, she helps feed people in her community — from hospital workers and first responders to single parents struggling without paychecks.
“The world as we know it is falling apart, but my two little hands are capable of making a difference,” she said. “I can’t change the world, but I can make lasagna.”
When the requests began multiplying faster than she could restock her refrigerator with ground beef and cheese, the president of the Gig Harbor Sportsman’s Club offered the clubhouse kitchen for her project.
“We saw what a great thing she was doing, and we have this nice commercial kitchen that wasn’t being used because of covid,” said Le Rodenberg, 73, the club’s president.
“She decided to do what she could for the community instead of sit at home,” he said. “I can tell you that she takes extra care with every one of those lasagnas.”
She expects to return to work at some point this summer but said she’ll still make time for lasagna. “I’ll bet I could continue this for the rest of my life,” she said. “I love creating in the kitchen, but more importantly, I love the people I’ve met.”
‘The world as we know it is falling apart, but my two little hands are capable of making a difference. I can’t change the world, but I can make lasagna.’ Michelle Brenner Gig Harbour’s “Lasagna Lady”