The Impact of a Tiny Country Church Fish Fry Is Immeasurable

PROSPERITY, Pennsylvania -- If you make a fish fry dinner, people will come for miles around. They will even cross several state lines to get to your church basement if the fish sandwich is fresh and spilling out of both sides of the bun, the macaroni and cheese is homemade with just enough crisp on top, and the coleslaw is crunchy and tangy.

It turns out that people will return if, when they leave, they aren't just pleased with the food they've eaten but they've also found new friends among the hundreds of strangers that were sitting on the wooden folding chairs along the long, cafeteria-type tables. Especially if the fish fry money goes to a meaningful cause.

That is just what has been happening for the past 19 years here at the Upper Ten Mile Presbyterian Church in the middle 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'll make about 10,000 meals this year that will serve both the lunch and dinner crowds."

Not bad for a tiny country church located in a town that has maybe 30 houses from end to end and a congregation that attracts about 80 to 90 faithful every Sunday for church services.

Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season when faithful Christians will observe 40 days of fasting, reflection, prayer and giving as they seek to grow closer to their faith in preparation for the observance of the Easter resurrection.

Cowden said people are motivated to return not just week after week but also every year because of the camaraderie that blooms among strangers when they take their seat in a wooden folding chair, talking initially with strangers, but then leave with the realization that they just experienced that sense of community they've been missing for far too long.

Since European immigrants first brought the mostly Catholic tradition of abstaining from eating meat on Fridays during Lent well over 150 years ago, America's faithful have turned church basements across Appalachia and the Great Lakes in the Midwest into bountiful results for struggling parishes and congregations. Almost invariably, word of mouth spreads that not only is the meal good but also affordable, while the reconnection with people enhances their lives.

"The Upper Ten Mile is very much a mission-minded church; we go on a trip every summer that usually has about 25 people that go on it, usually to some hard-hit area of Appalachia. For instance, when the big West Virginia floods happened, we were there helping rebuilding," Cowden explained.

Cowden said they started out in 2005 and only sold a couple of dinners, then joked they had a handicap because of their denomination. "The Catholics have always had the hold on fish fries. We always joke about that, that we're trying our best, but it's really grown. It's taken a life all of its own," he said.

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