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St. John’s Church Hosts Annual Lenten Fish Fry

At left, Mike Palermo, Lenten Fish Fry Dinner chairman at St. John’s Church in Jamestown, and volunteer Dan Bracey keep the fish frying at the annual Lenten Fish Fry. P-J photo by Katrina Fuller

“I’ve got a broiled here, and a battered,” a volunteer calls out as plates and containers loaded with piping-hot fish head out the door.

Like a well-oiled machine, the fish, shrimp and vegetable lasagna is plated, surrounded with French fries or potato salad, apple sauce or cole slaw and a whole lot of love.

The delectable meals aren’t out of a restaurant, but rather the kitchen of St. John’s Church in honor of the annual Lenten Fish Fry. Organizer and chairman Mike Palermo said the community-centered meal has been a tradition for about 25 years.

“We serve between 325 or 350 people in two-and-a-half hours,” Palermo said. “We have quite a few volunteers, and the same ones seem to keep coming back. They seem to have a good time.”

Palermo manned the deep fryers along with Dan Bracey, volunteer. Bracey joked that Palermo’s favorite part of the dinners was working with him.

“It is,” Palermo said with a grin. “It’s working with all the volunteers. The volunteers are wonderful.”

In the kitchen, some volunteers were frying fish, others broiling and others were plating potato salad and packing dinners onto plates or into containers. Like clockwork, each person performed their job as if they had been doing it for years. Palermo said that many of them had been doing it for years, and in some cases, since the very beginning of the tradition.

“It started out as a community builder,” he said. And the community supports us very well.”

Palermo said the church attempts to support the community by buying from all local vendors, such as Farm Fresh Foods, Maplevale and Tilaro’s Bakery.

He said the church tried something new this year and opened on the Friday before Lent, as a sort of soft open, but the crowds piled in.

“It gets busy pretty quick,” Palermo said.

Fish is served either broiled or fried alongside a choice of two sides, including golden-brown French fries, coleslaw, potato salad or apple sauce. The church also offers meals which include fried shrimp, a combination of fish and shrimp or vegetable lasagna. For adults, a dinner costs $10, while a child’s dinner costs $8. A vegetable lasagna dinner costs $8.

The dinners will continue every Friday throughout Lent except for Good Friday. The dinner lasts from 4:30-7 p.m. each week.

St. John’s Church is located at 270 Newton Avenue in Jamestown.

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