Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18. That means it’s time for fish fries or other meatless meals on Fridays at about 40 parishes around the diocese.
The events have grown in popularity as a way of helping Catholics observe the Church’s rules regarding abstinence from meat on the Fridays of Lent. In addition, they provide an opportunity for Catholic and non-Catholic residents of parish neighborhoods to get together for food and fellowship.
One of the longest-running fish fries in the Diocese of Columbus is at Powell St. Joan of Arc Church, where the Knights of Columbus began serving fish dinners in 1997, making this the 30th year for the event.
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Tony Natarian, deputy grand knight of Knights Council 10765 who holds the title of fish fry captain, said more than 6,000 people attended the dinners last year at his parish over the course of the six weeks they were offered. There is no fish fry on Good Friday at most diocesan parishes.
He’s expecting larger crowds this year now that St. Joan of Arc and nearby Columbus St. Peter Church have become a single parish with two locations as part of the diocese’s Real Presence Real Future restructuring effort. This fall, Ave Maria Academy, the first new parish school in the diocese in decades, will open at the McEwan Center at St. Peter.
“Council 10765 is looking forward to growing together with St. Peter St. Joan of Arc as Ave Maria Academy opens,” he said. “Our parish will be undergoing changes to support this new and exciting growth.
“We are serving more customers than ever while operating from the social hall at St. Joan of Arc, where we now use just about every available space in the parish complex except the sanctuary,” Natarian said. “We have a lot of engineers, information technology, sales and finance people in the council. They’ve used their business backgrounds to help build efficiency into every aspect of the fish fry while maintaining the quality and experience our customers appreciate every year.”
Also helping with the dinners are members of K of C Council 11216 at St. Peter Church and San Pedro Consejo 18195, established for Spanish-speaking members of the parish, plus volunteers from many other parish organizations.
“From the beginning of the fish fries until the COVID pandemic, we usually had it set up where volunteers from different organizations would come in on different weeks – the Knights women’s group one week, the men’s club another week, the choir, the Parish School of Religion and so forth. Members of that group would get a free meal on their week,” Natarian said.
“COVID broke down the silos in which different groups would consider themselves as mainly members of that group rather than of the broader parish community. That turned out to be a good thing, because as people from different organizations began doing things together, they realized the strength of the whole community,
“There weren’t many other events that allowed people from all the groups at St. Joan of Arc to come together at one place and for people from other parishes and non-Catholics to see what we were doing. The parish festival was one, our craft fair was another. These were great tools for evangelization on an informal basis. With the merger, they’re likely to be more significant in that way.”
The fish fries will take place this year from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 20 and 27 and March 6, 13, 20 and 27 at St. Joan of Arc, 10700 Liberty Road. The menu will include battered fish or baked fish, coleslaw, green beans, macaroni and cheese and French fries. Natarian said there has been little change in the menu over the years except for a few years when baked potatoes were offered.
“Nothing fancy because we know what people like,” Natarian said. “Most of what we have is supplied by Lipari Foods, an independent distributor where one of our parishioners is an executive. None of it comes straight from a box or can. We add our own touches to everything. Last year, we served about 6,000 pounds of fish and a literal ton – 2,000 pounds – of mac and cheese.”
Once expenses are covered, all the money made at the fish fries goes to the Knights’ charitable work. Natarian said that last year his council donated to about 40 organizations, including parish service groups, programs for religious vocations, food pantries, Special Olympics and other activities for the developmentally disabled and a scholarship program.
Fish is available on an “all you care to eat” basis and prices are $15 for people from ages 18 to 64, $10 for children from ages 10 to 17 and $14 for senior citizens or takeout orders. Children age 9 and younger eat free.
Prices when the fish fry began were $7.50 per person, with a $1 off published coupon available, $3.50 for children and a maximum of $20 per family, said Steve Molick, who organized the 1997 dinners.
“I was grand knight in 1995-1996 when we were one of the top three councils in the state and I wanted to get a fish fry started then,” he said. “I grew up in the Cleveland area where lots pf parishes had fish fries or soup or spaghetti suppers on Fridays, but it hadn’t caught on that much here.
“I had to lay out a business plan for Father Thomas Bender, who was pastor at St. Joan of Arc then, because the parish didn’t have the facilities. There was no social hall, just a kitchen and a sink.
“The Knights who liked the idea of a fish fry figured we could do anything if we put our heads together and that’s how it went. One of our brother Knights worked at the Kroger store in Powell and he said he could get an old Pepsi trailer for us and that’s where we based things. We got a stove for oven-baked fish, put a couple burners on top, converted them so they could use propane and borrowed a couple of fryers for french fries and fried fish. With no social hall, we used religious education classrooms for seating,” he said.
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“I’m not sure about the first week, but I have records that say we served 385 the second week and we kept growing.
“I had four goals in mind. One of them was building community among the parish organizations. Back then, the best way to do that was having a different group volunteer each week. The other goals were reducing the parish debt, increasing awareness of the parish Lenten services (we timed the fish fry so that it would end when Stations of the Cross started, so people didn’t have an excuse not to attend Stations); and keeping things simple.
“We’ve had many people volunteer each year from the start. One of the early volunteers was Tony Natarian’s father, Mike.”
“I’ve been involved with the fish fry every year since the first,” Tony Natarian said. “I started waiting tables when I was a kid, then went to kitchen work and kept going up from there. Even when I went to college at Bowling Green, I stayed involved by being a customer.
“Steve’s original goals are pretty much the ones we have today. Provide a good product and the people will come and everyone will benefit in ways beyond enjoying a meal.”