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“We’ve been doing this, it seems like forever,” Chet Norstrom said as he sliced into a pan of lasagna.
For almost 20 years, on the 10th of each month, he leads a group from his church, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, in preparing lasagna at Emmanuel Dining Room. It all started with the church’s former pastor and his wife.
“She had a special recipe for making lasagna that didn’t require cooking the noodles,” he said, and that made preparing big batches of lasagna much easier.
That pastor has moved on, but Chet continues to bring 12 pans, holding 21 servings apiece, to the dining room each month. He gives credit to the staff who make help him in his efforts, meeting him at his car and carrying the heavy pans — about 20 pounds each—into the kitchen.
“After I retired, I felt I had time to do something for the Lord. I remembered in the Bible, it says, ‘Feed my people,’” Chet, a retired engineer, said. “It just broke my heart to see all these people standing in line, trying to get food. It’s tough. There’s a lot of poverty around this area.
“We’ve gotten good reports back from our diners,” he said. “They love the lasagna and we love to make it for them.”