PROSPERITY, Pennsylvania — If you make a fish fry dinner, people will come for miles around. They’ll cross a few state lines to get to your church basement if the fish sandwich is fresh and slathered on both sides of the bread, the macaroni and cheese is homemade with just enough crunch on top, and the coleslaw is crunchy and tangy.
It turns out that people will come back if, when they leave, they not only enjoyed the food they ate but also found new friends among the hundreds of strangers sitting on wooden folding chairs along the long place , cafeteria-style tables. Especially if the fish fry money goes to a worthwhile cause.
That’s just what’s been happening for the past 19 years at Upper Ten Mile Presbyterian Church in the heart of this tiny Washington County village. This event, held every Friday during Lent, has raised a whopping $500,000 over the years for missions to serve the underserved.
Eric Cowden, one of the organizers of the Upper Ten Mile church fish fry, said, “We will be making about 10,000 meals this year serving the lunch and dinner crowds.”
Not bad for a small country church located in a town with perhaps 30 houses from end to end and a congregation that attracts about 80 to 90 believers every Sunday for church services.
Last Wednesday marked the beginning of the season of Lent where faithful Christians celebrated 40 days of fasting, meditation, prayer and giving as they sought to grow closer to their faith in preparation for celebrating the resurrection of Easter.
Cowden says people are motivated to return not only week after week but year after year because of the friendships that blossom with strangers when they sit in a wooden folding chair, talking at first with strangers, but then left realizing that they had experienced. the sense of community they’ve been missing for so long.
Since European immigrants first brought most of the Catholic tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent more than 150 years ago, America’s faithful have turned the church basements of Appalachia and the Great Lakes in the Midwest to be a bountiful result for struggling parishes and congregations. Almost invariably, word of mouth spreads that the food is not only delicious but also affordable, while reconnecting with people makes their lives better.
“Upper Ten Mile is a mission-minded church; we travel every summer with usually about 25 people coming with us, usually to some area of Appalachia. For example, when the big flood happened in West Virginia, we were there helping to rebuild,” explained Cowden.
Cowden said they started in 2005 and only sold a few dinners, then joked that they had a handicap because of their denomination. “Catholics always have fries. We always joke about that, that we’re trying our best, but it really grew. It’s taken a life all of its own,” he said.
If someone told you that they know of a small country church located in a town with maybe 30 houses in it that recruits volunteers who show up every week, dip 1,500 fish fillets in an egg wash, flour and bread, and fried them, as well as homemade macaroni and cheese and coleslaw — and did that for eight straight weeks — you’d probably think they were spinning a tall tale .
Cowden just smiled; they sold out every week.
The town of Prosperity, for many people, is a place that acts as a gateway between one destination or another. It was founded in 1848 by a gentleman named Robert Wallace who had dreams of grandeur that never materialized for the lands he purchased. Most of the houses that sit along state Route 18 that cuts through the middle of the village are over 100 years old, well loved and worth slowing down just to glimpse their simple beauty.
Friday, this barrio will be bustling with people queuing up to spell and fry dinners on their beloved fish or take stacks of take-out home or to the office. License plates here come from as far away as Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio and even from across the state.
Yes, that’s great.
Cowden said they get the fish frozen on Tuesdays and start prepping on Thursdays. On Friday, all hands are on deck. By Friday night, a whole crew would come in to tear things down so they could start over on Tuesday.
How popular are fish fries in Appalachia and the Great Lakes region? Well, put it this way: There’s an app or two for that. There are also detailed searchable Google maps for Lenten fish fries too. In other words, it’s pretty serious stuff out here in the middle of nowhere.
“People literally turn their entire social calendar around for the few weeks of Lent where they go to fish fry,” Cowden said. “For us, it’s more than just an amazing meal. It’s a way for people to have a meaningful impact on our mission work; Americans love to be part of something bigger than themselves, and they also love to create and join communities. This is what makes all of that happen.”
Salena Zito is a CNN political analyst, and a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. He reaches Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and everywhere in between.
