Lauren Veca was worried about the meatballs. The 62-year-old doula had insisted on making her mother’s recipe for the Garibaldina Society’s upcoming monthly pasta dinner, but now she was having second thoughts.

“You’re having performance anxiety because of these meatballs,” said the club’s president, Nicole Infante, 48, a mother of two who never sits still. “It’s true,” Veca said, sighing heavily. “And it’s all because of my family.”