What started as a kind gesture during the COVID-19 pandemic has grown into a movement across the world — one dish of lasagna at a time.

“There was a woman who saw a need and wanted to fill the gap so she made a (social media) post and said, ‘If you’re hungry and need food, comment on this post and I’ll make you a lasagna,’ and that’s where it blossomed from,” said Marcie Michalko as she stacked trays of lasagna into a commercial refrigerator at Westlake Corporation’s Port Hall Wednesday morning. “On that post, not only were there people in need, there were also people volunteering to make lasagna, too. It just grew from there.”

Lasagna Love now has 48,000 volunteers worldwide and has delivered more than 400,000 lasagnas. This week, United Way of Southwest Louisiana has partnered with Lasagna Love and Popeye’s Foundation to organize Lasagna-Fest, preparing and distributing more than 700 trays of lasagna to area families.

“At Westlake we do a lot with United Way and that helps us stay connected to our community so, of course, it was the perfect project for us to be able to do with them,” she said. “We got the ingredients, got volunteers so that we could make 100 lasagnas right here and we’ll be making the deliveries later today so people will have a hot dinner tonight.”

With support also from Citgo Petroleum, Turner Industries, PPG, Grace, Catholic Charities and Second Harvest Food Bank team members, meals are being distributed to the housekeeping and janitorial staff at Calcasieu Parish schools, Lake Charles Memorial Hospital and area casinos, as well as Abraham’s Tent and Calcasieu Council on Aging clients.

Michalko, who serves as the United Way chair for Westlake Corporation and is a member of the United Way board of directors, said she was eager to volunteer for Lasagna-Fest because it mirrors her own mission of helping others.

“I was born and raised in this area. I’ve been here my entire life,” she said. “I always want to be able to give back and that’s one of the things I love about where I work is I have the opportunity to stay involved in the community and continue to help those in need.”

Tami Chrisope, vice president of marketing of the United Way of Southwest Louisiana, said the Lasagna Love grant awarded to Lake Charles was for the ingredients to prepare 240 pans of lasagna.

“But when more and more groups started becoming involved, they started buying additional ingredients and now we’re going to have 700 pans and each one is 10-12 servings,” Chrisope said. “That’s potentially 7,000 served. It’s such a great way to celebrate people who work so hard all the time and it’s a great way to kick off the new year.”

Suzanne McFatter was one of 10 Westlake Corporation team members from their three sites to volunteer Wednesday creating an assembly line to layer the lasagnas. The first worker lined the tray with noodles, the tray then moved to the ricotta cheese station, followed by the ground beef area, tomato sauce station and then was layered with more noodles and shredded cheeses before the tray was closed with a sticker that read “From one neighbor to another, with love.”

“Luckily, we have a company that encourages us to be involved with our community and help our community and help those in need so we’re glad to be able to participate in something like this,” she said while spreading a layer of ricotta cheese on noodles lining one of the lasagna pans. “When I got here I said, ‘Just tell me what to do.’ ”

McFatter compared her preparation style to “kindergarten art class.”

“It involves noodles and your fingers,” she said with a laugh.