Pandemic limits, cancels Lenten fish fries in diocese

By Tim Puet
Catholic Times Reporter

As it has done for nearly every other aspect of parish life, the COVID-19 pandemic will alter a major activity of many parishes – the community fish fry that usually takes place on Lenten Fridays.

This will be the second year in which the virus has affected such events. Last year’s fish fry season was about to enter its third of six weeks when on Friday, March 13, Ohio’s bishops suspended the state’s  Catholics from the obligation of attending Saturday Vigil or Sunday Masses through the end of March, in conjunction with statewide restrictions on public gatherings. That suspension remains in effect, with most other parish activities also being restricted.  

State health officials in mid-March issued orders closing schools, bars, restaurants and most businesses and halting public gatherings.  Public Masses resumed on Pentecost Sunday, May 31, schools were reopened in August for the 2020-2021 academic year and business restrictions were eased, although  many people  continue to work from home instead of at an office. However, state orders prohibiting most indoor gatherings of more than 10 people and requiring that safe-distancing rules be maintained remain in effect.

This means that most parishes where fish fries will take place this year will be limited to drive-thru and carryout service. Several parishes decided not to have fish fries this year. The Catholic Times asked parishes that hosted fish fries before the pandemic hit in 2020 if they were going to continue with the dinners this year. Of the 49 parishes that responded, 23 said they would go ahead with fish fries or pasta dinners this year. 

Powell St. Joan of Arc Church, one of the largest parishes in the diocese, will hold its fish fry each Friday from Feb. 19 to March 26 from 5 to 7 p.m., continuing a tradition that began about 25 years ago.  Dinners are $15. Orders must be placed in advance at www.bestfishfry.com. They will be taken until 5 p.m. of the Thursday before each event, with each order assigned to be picked up during one of four half-hour slots.

“Having a fish fry in the midst of all the COVID restrictions takes a lot of planning,” said Mike Natarian, deputy grand knight of Knights of Columbus Council 10765. (Most fish fries are sponsored by Knights of Columbus councils affiliated with a particular parish.) “We started in September to form a plan that would maintain safe distancing and follow all the other rules. 

“We put together a PowerPoint presentation and presented it to Father (James) Black (the parish’s pastor). He approved it and took it to the diocesan Chancery for approval by the diocese. After it was accepted there, we had a couple of trial runs in December – the first one with 100 dinners, and the second with 200.”

Natarian said he anticipates that a maximum of 400 dinners will be served in the two-hour window for the event. “We’d do as many as 1,000 sit-down dinners with the setup we had, but the restrictions make about 400 the best number for this year,” he said. “One other change is that it won’t be an all-you-can-eat dinner. We think our run-throughs have shown how this can be done safely, so we’re pretty confident about our plans.”

Columbus St. Margaret of Cortona won’t be having a fish fry this year for the first time since 1999.

“We discussed several options with Father Jeff Rimelspach,” the parish’s pastor, said fish fry chairman Larry Pishitelli. “But none of them would follow our mission statement, which for 22 years has said, ‘Our goals are to encourage fellowship and friendship throughout the community and parish; to provide an opportunity for all parishioners and their children to become involved in parish life; and, lastly, to raise additional income for the parish.’

“Anyone who has come to the dinners and seen our social hall filled with happy people eating a good dinner knows why we feel that if we can’t have our dinners the regular way, it’s better not to have them at all,” he said. “There’s always the hope that conditions might improve to the point that we might be able to have a dinner late in Lent, but this is highly unlikely.”

Pishitelli said about 850 people usually attend the St. Margaret fish fries weekly. He said the abrupt ending of fish fries last year meant that the parish had about 1,200 pounds of fish in a cooler. “We donated some and sold some, and ended up supplying a good many people with fish,” he said. “It took about four months to distribute everything we had.”

“Parishioners wanted to continue our fish fries not only because they enjoy the food, but because it’s a great way of supporting the Knights’ charitable works in the parish and community,” said John Page, grand knight of Knights Council 11354, which will be sponsoring Friday fish fries at Columbus St. Catharine Church from Feb. 19 to March 19. He said that the council has been conducting fish fries for around 20 years and serves about 600 meals weekly. He’s hoping for a turnout of about 400 per week this year.

“We’ve been adding to the fish fry menu for the past couple of years, and people have noticed, so we wanted to keep the momentum going,” said John Swails, deputy grand knight of Council 5253. It will be serving diners a choice of fish or shrimp, with a choice of rice pilaf or hush puppies, on Feb. 19, March 5 and March 19 in a drive-thru-only format at Reynoldsburg St. Pius X Church.

“We’re proud of the support we provide for parish needs, for scholarships to Catholic schools, for the diocesan religious education program, for the developmentally disabled and other things,” he said. “We’ve had to postpone some of our fundraising activities for the past year, so the fish fry is important because it allows us to continue at least some of that support.”

“We’ve been having fish fries for the past dozen years or so, and our guys wanted to keep going because they just love doing it,” said Marty Ross of Council 14346, based at Wheelersburg St. Peter in Chains Church. “It’s become a tradition and a service to the parish and the community, and people missed us when we had to shut down last year.

“It’s not just the food that draws people. It’s the chance to have people going from table to table and talking with each other; for instance, we have three sisters who come every week because it’s the best opportunity they have to get together. 

“This is the kind of thing people can’t do this year, but we want to at least have people keep thinking about us so they’re ready to come back when we hopefully can reopen our hall next year.” Ross said his council usually serves 90 to 100 meals each week. Dates for the council’s fish fries are Fridays from Feb. 19 to March 26.

Tim Peterson of Knights Council 2299 at Logan St. John Church said his council won’t be serving fish dinners this year because it isn’t likely to be a profitable venture. “We’re a small parish and need to have about 200 people at our dinners for them to be successful,” he said. “That’s usually not a problem, but it isn’t likely we’ll draw those numbers during a pandemic. There’s also the safety factor to consider with the number of people needed to handle food.”

His council’s principal charitable work involves supplying meals, laundry detergent, toiletries and other necessities for the Hocking Hills Inspire Shelter for the homeless, which has been open for about three years. To replace the money raised through the fish fries, the council is selling gift cards from Honey Baked Ham and from local restaurants, with a portion of each sale being returned to the council. “This is helping us and helping local business at the same time,” Peterson said.

Council 5386 at Washington Court House St. Colman of Cloyne Church also is not having any fish fries this year, said its grand knight, Doug Hosch.

“We decided a few weeks ago to suspend the dinners for this year because we’re a small council with about 70 members, many of them elderly,” he said. “We had a drive-thru fish dinner in October which made us a good bit of money because we had a credit with our fish supplier. Members who had stores and other businesses donated other food, so our costs were minimal.”

His council provides scholarship funds to high school seniors from the parish and support for the parish St. Vincent de Paul Society, organizations for the developmentally disabled, the Veterans Affairs hospital in Chillicothe, diocesan seminarians and a local pregnancy center. 

Find a fish fry or Lenten dinner

NORTH

OUR LADY OF VICTORY CHURCH
1559 Roxbury Road, Columbus
Sundays, 2/14, 3/14, 3/28, 1-3 p.m.
Italian dinners
Curbside pickup only

ST. ANDREW CHURCH
1899 McCoy Road, Upper Arlington
Fridays, 2/26, 3/5-3/26, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Pre-order and pickup only

ST. JOAN OF ARC CHURCH
10700 Liberty Road, Powell
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7 p.m.
Takeout only

ST. MICHAEL CHURCH
5750 N. High St., Worthington
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION
6300 E. Dublin-Granville Road, New Albany (Ministry Center)
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Carryout only

EAST

ST. ELIZABETH ANN SETON PARISH
600 Hill Road N., Pickerington (Activity Center)
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 4:30-7 p.m.
Takeout only

ST. CATHARINE CHURCH
500 S. Gould Road, Columbus
Fridays, 2/19-3/19, 5-7 p.m. 
Drive-thru only

ST. MATTHEW CHURCH
807 Havens Corners Road, Gahanna
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Drive-thru and carryout only

ST. PIUS X CHURCH
1051 S. Waggoner Road, Reynoldsburg 
(New Parish Center)
Fridays, 2/19, 3/5, 3/19, 5-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

WEST

ST. CECILIA CHURCH
434 Norton Road, Columbus
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7:30 p.m.
Drive-thru only

ST. STEPHEN THE MARTYR CHURCH
4131 Clime Road, Columbus (West Entrance)
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7 p.m.
To go only


OUTSIDE COLUMBUS

ST. JOSEPH CHURCH
670 W. Main St., Plain City
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5:30-8 p.m.
Drive-thru only

ST. MARY CHURCH
66 E. William St., Delaware (Commons)
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

ST. MARY CHURCH
K of C Hall, 1232 E. Center St., Marion
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7:30 p.m.
Carryout only

NEWARK CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL
1 Green Wave Drive, Newark
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 4-7 p.m.
Drive-thru or carryout only
-
ST. LUKE CHURCH
7 W. Rambo St., Danville (Community Center)
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL CHURCH
206 E. Chestnut St., Mount Vernon (School)
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 4:30-7 p.m.
Carryout only

CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY
1835 Dover-Zoar Road, Bolivar
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 4-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

SACRED HEART CHURCH
39 Burt Ave., Coshocton
Friday, 3/26, 5-6:30 p.m.
To-go meals only

SACRED HEART CHURCH
777 3rd St. N.E., New Philadelphia
(Tuscarawas Central Catholic Jr./Sr. High School)
Fridays 2/19-3/26, 4-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

BISHOP FLAGET SCHOOL
570 Parsons Ave, Chillicothe
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 4-7 p.m.
Drive-thru only

ST. PETER IN CHAINS 
2167 Lick Run Lyra Road, Wheelersburg
Fridays, 2/19-3/26, 5-7 p.m.
Curbside pickup, takeout only

ST. MARY AND HOLY REDEEMER
(Portsmouth parishes)
1518 Gallia St., Portsmouth (K of C Hall)
Wednesday 2/17, Fridays 2/19-3/26, 5-8 p.m.
Dine-in or carryout