Gold Coaster’s secret recipe for spreading kindness

From her kitchen to strangers’ doorsteps, a local real estate agent is spreading comfort one homemade meal at a time.

Bernadette Cummins, a local ‘lasagne love’ volunteer, with a homemade meal ready for delivery. Picture Glenn Hampson

After a day of property inspections and client calls, Bernadette Cummins pulls into an unfamiliar driveway, carries a foil-covered lasagne to the front door, and sends a simple text: “Your meal has been delivered.”

Ms Cummins is part of the pandemic-born initiative ‘Lasagne Love,’ which sees volunteers cook lasagnes from their own ingredients and deliver them contact-free to people in need.

The Mermaid Waters resident said she was thrilled when she first discovered the community group on Facebook a couple months ago.

“It really appealed to me because I love to cook and bake and I could sign up as much as I wanted,” Ms Cummins said.

“Life is tough out there right now so I thought I could do something good.”

Bernadette Cummins, a local ‘lasagne love’ volunteer, with a homemade meal ready for delivery. Picture Glenn Hampson

Whether it’s a family struggling financially, a single parent juggling work and kids, a student living far from home, or someone recovering from illness – there’s no questions asked or judgement passed on a requester.

But Ms Cummins said she doesn’t know recipients’ circumstances unless they choose to share.

“The last one I did, they had a really bad illness. She had surgery for it and was basically on the couch for six months,” she said.

“Everyone has their story but I felt it was time for me to be on the other foot,” Ms Cummins said.

The 45-year-old is part of a global volunteer movement that has recently reached a major milestone – 1500 home-cooked lasagnes shared nationwide.

Originally founded in the United States during Covid lockdowns in 2020, the initiative has since fed more than two million people globally.