Pictured left to right are Ron Pappalardo, Mike Palermo and Toni Indriolo, preparing for the beginning of the fish fry on Wednesday. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

In 2023, Holy Apostles Parish’s St John’s church took a hiatus from a community-loved Lenten tradition of its annual fish fry.

This year, the church is bringing it back in support of St Susan Center.

The fish fry dinner began Wednesday for Ash Wednesday and continues on Friday, continuing every Friday after that from Feb. 20 to March 27. All dinners will be takeout only and served at Holy Apostles Parish, St John’s Church, located at 270 Newton Ave. Meals will be available for pickup between 4:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. with phone orders accepted from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., by calling 716-490-0456. Online preorders are also available at stsusancenter.org/fishfry until the day before each dinner.

St Susan Center Board Member Toni Indriolo said the fish fry is something that St John’s has done for over 30 years before the hiatus, and it is being brought back now in an effort to help raise money for St. Susan Center.

“The hiatus was because of the growing needs of the church,” Indriolo said. “The area where the fish is served used to be an open dining area, and is now a religious education area for the kids. There is not enough space now to do as much as we’d like, so it is only takeout, but the growing needs of the church required a religious instruction area for the kids.”

In other years, Indriolo said the room would be packed with all of the people who came for the fish fry, but with the changes there is no in-house dining available this year, but the church wanted to help St Susan Center so they agreed to open the kitchen up for takeout orders.

Ron Pappalardo, who is helping with the dinners, said that the dinners involve “a lot of people doing a lot of work.” Mike Palermo runs the kitchen and takes the orders, with Pappalardo getting volunteers to come help. Pappalardo noted that everyone he asked to come help said yes immediately, enough so that there are people willing to help that he has no work for. Additionally, he said the church has gotten a good reputation for their fish, which Indriolo agreed with.

“The food is amazing,” Indriolo said. “Many members of the church community have volunteered to help and we couldn’t do it without them. The church is very community oriented and involved. When we approached Father Paul about it he said, absolutely we could do it, and that they would do anything for St Susan Center.”

The group agreed that people should be interested in coming and getting takeout to support St Susan Center and for the atmosphere and camaraderie. Palermo said each fish is eight to 10 ounces that is lightly battered, with both adult and children sized meals available. Indriolo praised him for his work.

“He does an amazing job,” Indriolo said. “People should come to support St Susan, which brings the community a very much needed asset. We feed 200 meals a day for the homeless and elderly, and the food is amazing there as well.”

She added that she hopes people will come out and support St Susan Center, thanking both the community and church for their support.

“Jamestown is a small city, and having the community pull together to help is huge,” Indriolo said.

For more information and a full list of menu items, visit stsusancenter.org.