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Links to past Mental Health Minutes are below.

 

How Volunteering Can Support Your Mental Health

By: Deea Hobbs Regional Coordinator for Lasagna Love Email: deea.hobbs@lasagnalove.org 

In a world that often feels rushed, heavy, and disconnected, finding meaningful ways to support your own mental health can be just as important as supporting others. Volunteering is one of those activities that does both. As you serve others, you are able to put your own problems aside for a time. Lasagna Love is a powerful example of how a simple act of kindness can have a profound emotional impact on everyone involved.

Lasagna Love is a global non-profit and they have over 500 volunteers in Colorado. They connect neighbors in need with volunteers, through homemade meals. The benefits extend far beyond food. For volunteers, the experience can be grounding, uplifting, and deeply healing.

One of the biggest contributors to stress and anxiety is feeling overwhelmed or lacking purpose. Volunteering offers something clear and tangible. The volunteers with Lasagna Love make a meal, deliver it, and help a real person or family. That sense of purpose, knowing exactly how your time and efforts are helping, can be incredibly stabilizing, especially during periods of burnout or emotional fatigue.

Even small, manageable acts of service can restore a sense of control and meaning, which are key components of good mental health.

Loneliness is a growing mental health concern, yet many people find social interaction exhausting or intimidating. Volunteering with Lasagna Love provides connection without pressure. Volunteers engage with neighbors in a warm yet simple way, often through a brief message, a doorstep delivery, or a short exchange of gratitude.

These moments of human connection remind us that we belong to a larger community. You don’t have to overshare, perform, or be “on.” Simply showing up as yourself is enough.

Research consistently shows that acts of kindness trigger the release of feel-good chemicals like dopamine and oxytocin. This “helper’s high” can reduce stress, ease symptoms of depression, and improve overall mood. Volunteering isn’t just emotionally rewarding, it’s biologically beneficial.

The impact is immediate when volunteering with Lasagna Love. Volunteers often report feeling lighter, calmer, and more optimistic after completing a delivery of a meal they have prepared. Seeing the direct result of your kindness reinforces positive emotions in a way that long-term goals sometimes can’t.

Cooking itself can be therapeutic. The rhythm of chopping, stirring, and baking can be calming, almost meditative. Preparing a meal for someone else adds another layer of meaning, it transforms a routine task into an act of care.

For many volunteers, cooking a familiar dish like lasagna evokes comfort and nostalgia. Sharing that comfort with someone who may be struggling can be deeply affirming, especially during challenging personal seasons.

Volunteering can gently shift perspective without minimizing your own struggles. Hearing someone’s gratitude or learning a bit about their situation often reminds volunteers that hardship looks different for everyone. This awareness can foster empathy and gratitude, not in a forced or guilt-driven way, but in a grounded, human one.

Importantly, Lasagna Love emphasizes kindness without judgment. Volunteers are not expected to fix problems or ask intrusive questions. This allows volunteers to help without emotional overload, protecting their own mental well-being.

Perhaps one of the most powerful mental health benefits of volunteering with Lasagna Love is knowing you’re part of something bigger. Each meal creates a ripple, a comfort for a family, relief for a volunteer, and a reminder that kindness still exists in the world.

In times when the news feels heavy or personal challenges feel isolating, being part of that ripple can restore hope.

Feel free to check out Lasagna Love at www.lasagnalove.org if you are interested in volunteering to make and deliver a homemade meal for a neighbor in need or if you would benefit from receiving a homemade lasagna, made with love by one of their volunteers. Volunteering with Lasagna Love isn’t just about feeding others, it’s about nourishing yourself, too. Through purpose, connection, and compassion, volunteers often discover that giving a little of their time and heart gives them back more than they expected.

 

This is the continued Mental Health Minute, beginning July 7, 2025.

• Feb. 16, 2026 — Mental Health Minute — How Volunteering Can Support Your Mental Health
• Feb. 11, 2026 — Mental Health Minute — Processing Grief
• Feb. 1, 2026 — Mental Health Minute — Free Local Sober Events
• Jan. 26, 2026 — Mental Health Minute — The Nervous System
• Jan. 18, 2026 — Mental Health Minute — A message from Yampa Valley High School
• Jan. 11,  2026 — Mental Health Minute – Prioritizing Mental Health Like Physical Health (Youth-Focused)
• Jan. 4, 2026 — Mental Health Minute — Healing through tears, laughter and love
• Dec. 28, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — The HOPE Initiative from The Health Partnership
• Dec. 14, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Standing Together: Men’s Work and “Walking Each Other Home”
• Dec. 8, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — The Gut and Brain Connection
• Nov. 30, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Your Voice Matters
• Nov. 24, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Nov. 16, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Time Change Blues 
• Nov. 10, 2025 — Mental Health Minute – Navigating Changes in Midlife for Women
• Nov. 3, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Stress Management in Teens
• Oct. 28, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Day of the Dead
• Oct. 19, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Sacred Moments: Finding the Sacred in the Ordinary 
• Oct. 13, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Talk Saves Lives: Empowering Our Community to Prevent Suicide
• Oct. 6, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) comes to Northwest Colorado
• Sept. 29, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Get Immediate Support with the 988 Colorado Mental Health Line
• Sept. 22, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Theater as an Outlet
• Sept. 14, 2025 –Mental Health Minute — Connection in Times of Adversity
• Sept. 7. 2025 — Mental Health Minute – Sharing stories and building bridges at new event
• Aug. 31, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Message from Yampatika
• Aug. 25, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Mental Health After a Critical Incident: How to Help, What to Expect, and Taking Care of Yourself
• Aug. 17, 2025 — Mental Health Minute: Uncertainty Is Part of Life — But It’s Heavier for Some
• Aug. 11, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Re:generation: A Christ-Centered Path to Lasting Transformation
• Aug. 3, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Steps to Help Save A Life
• July 28, 2025 — Mental Health Minute — Steamboat Kids & Phones
• July 24-2025 — Mental Health Minute — Starting with the basics
• July 15, 2025 — Mental Health Minute – Helping Others through Peer Engagement and The HOPE Initiative
• LINK to all previous Mental Health Minutes — DECEMBER 1, 2024, THROUGH JUNE 23, 2025