Nicky Bandera knew she wanted to help her friends and neighbors who were hit early on in the COVID pandemic, so she began cooking them homemade lasagnas — a project that quickly expanded.
“We were waking up at five in the morning and working until seven p.m. every night for like 150 days,” she said.
By the fall, the Quincy woman and her team made 2,500 lasagnas, and had begun selling clothing items to help raise money for various charities.
“We saw how many people were connecting with whatever it was we were doing, which was I think beyond lasagna,” she said. “Spreading a little bit of joy with the way we were doing it and realizing that, in the same light, feeding each other wasn’t just about food.”
That quickly became the organization’s, Project Paulie, tagline.
“Feeding people is about maintaining a roof over someone’s head. Feeding people is about mental health. It’s about caring about our neighbor and all of these other ways,” she said. “It’s certainly not just about food.”
MassLive spoke with Bandera last April. At that point, she had delivered more than 300 lasagnas around the Boston area to bartenders, DJs, drag queens, undocumented workers and many others.
“That feeling of somebody, caring, and just putting a smile on your face,” said Ryan Brown, a DJ in Boston, who received one of Bandera’s meals. “And just being thought about, which I think everybody can use.”
The pandemic continued much longer than most people thought last spring, including more layoffs and deaths through the months that followed.
But Bandera kept cooking.
“Who could have thought I would be here,” she said. “To be an example of the way that you do things when people need you to my child is something that I think about every day. To be able to now have created a job for myself ... To be able to give back and serve my community, it’s just been awesome.”
Project Paulie also added patches and other merchandise over the summer and begin shifting their focus to that, rather than the lasagnas.
Now they sell a number of different color hats, sweatshirts, bags, socks, bandanas and jewelry.
Through this effort, Project Paulie has raised about $20,000.
Each different colored hat is for a different charity. For example, the white hat is for No Kid Hungry. The pink hat is for Black Girls Code, and a tie dye hat goes to BAGLY, which believes in creating a safe space in youth.
All the products, however, have one thing in common — a tomato on the front.
“It’s like a tomato on a hat and it’s been the most wild thing,” Bandera said laughing.
But it’s not just to be silly.
“When people are wearing these hats, there is a conversation, no matter what. Like if you’re wearing one walking down the street, people are like, ‘What the hell? Why is there a tomato on your head?’” she said. “Those conversations are about the organizations that those hats represent.”
Of course, Bandera is still making lasagna, which she said she’s not sick of yet. In fact, she recently made one for a friend’s birthday.
“It was certainly an organic symbol of love for us and something that I genuinely felt good about doing and wanted to do,” she said.
Related Content:
"about" - Google News
March 14, 2021 at 04:50PM
https://ift.tt/3lgLl2w
‘Feeding each other wasn’t just about food’: Massachusetts woman baked more than 2,500 lasagnas, raised $20,0 - MassLive.com
"about" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MjBJUT
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "‘Feeding each other wasn’t just about food’: Massachusetts woman baked more than 2,500 lasagnas, raised $20,0 - MassLive.com"
Post a Comment