Local fish fries grapple with takeout-only recommendation
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Immaculate Conception Church’s fish fry delivery drivers wait for orders on Friday while the social hall remained sparse after the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh recommended fish fries be takeout only.
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Volunteers at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church prepare food for customers.
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church’s fish fry was significantly less busy Friday, but some patrons still opted to dine there.
Normally, there would have been a line to get into the fish fry at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church.
But there was no line at the Chartiers Township church around lunchtime Friday, a day after the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh recommended that parishes limit their fish fries to take-out as part of an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
However, Miraculous Medal is not limiting how people choose to enjoy their meals.
“As a committee, we thought what was best was to emphasize the takeout. We actually have a lot more takeout orders and phone-in orders than we ever have at this point in a day, but we didn’t want to let people come and not have a seat,” said Greg Starcevic, a member of the church’s fish fry committee.
While the social hall was sparse, some chose to eat in despite the diocesan recommendation.
Lou Muth, a West Middletown resident who works in construction, ate with a group of coworkers who are not concerned about the coronavirus.
“It’s all hysteria,” Muth said.
Starcevic said that though people are allowed to eat at the social hall, the volunteers are taking extra caution with their hygiene and food preparation in order to keep everyone safe.
“We have had several volunteers that said, ‘You know, I don’t feel good today. I’m not coming in,’ or they might be a little bit on the older side, 65-plus, that don’t want to get into a position where they’re kind of compromised,” Starcevic said.
Though Miraculous Medal’s takeout orders “significantly” increased over last week, according to Starcevic, such was not the case at Immaculate Conception Church in Washington.
Jamie Cook, who runs the church’s fish fry, expressed concern over how the pandemic is going to affect their sales, saying they had about half the takeout orders they normally would during lunchtime.
“This is a huge fundraiser for our church,” Cook said.
“I think it’s going to affect our evening business a lot,” she later added.
Cook lamented confusion over whether the diocese was asking churches to move to takeout on Friday, or to begin next week. She said she fielded phone calls from people who believed the fish fry would be closed altogether.
According to Cook, they will move to takeout only next week.
“That’s subject to change. We don’t know what’s happening next week. We don’t know what’s happening tomorrow,” Cook said, noting the evolving nature of the coronavirus crisis could close the fish fry.
For Friday, Immaculate Conception was allowing people to eat in their social hall. However, other than volunteers and delivery drivers, it was mostly empty during lunch.
Immaculate Conception’s delivery drivers also said takeout orders were down, and that anxiety over coronavirus has changed how businesses interact with them when they make a delivery.
“They’re meeting us outside rather than letting us come inside,” said Steve Hunter.
Starcevic said that while Miraculous Medal’s fish fry committee has discussed how takeout only could affect business, their focus is on keeping people healthy.
“We’re only controlling what we can, and the rest is up to the good Lord and individual decisions that people make about what they want to do,” Starcevic said.