Coffee Run Council 6768 in Hockessin completed its Annual Lenten Fish Fry Dinners at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish with much success for the parish community.
It was dubbed “A whale of a project” by The Dialog.
The fish fry raised more than $26,000 for local charities and served more than 2,200 dinners in six weeks, averaging 368 per night. The fish frys have been going for 20 years at St. Mary’s and since 2023 been led by 4th Degree FN John Bordonaro, assisted by his wife, Karen, and Past Grand Knight Mike Bailey, PGK and Financial Secretary Ralph Paulus and GK Carl Osterlof.
Planning begins about 2-3 months before Lent, discussing menus, pricing, staffing and improvements from prior years. Each week a team prepares the food on Thursday and Friday morning and a team of cooks and servers start the dinner with patrons coming from 5-7 p.m.
The main menu is fried and baked flounder, house-made crab cakes and clam chowder for the adults and fish sticks and mac & cheese for children, with a special Maryland Crab soup made by pastor and guest chef, Father Joe Piekarski.
The favorite of the night is the dessert table supplied by the KofC Ladies Auxiliary. Fish Fry patrons are a mix of St. Mary parishioners, local community members, other parishes, other faith churches and even fish fry enthusiasts and aficionados. Boy Scouts and confirmation candidates help with serving and clean up.
This year continued the tradition of inviting the OCIA class, families and sponsors for complimentary dinners. Students for the PREP classes are offered free meals if they participate in the Stations of the Cross following the dinner at 7 p.m. Local firefighters are given a free meal to recognize their service to the community.
What was once a Knights-only project has grown in size, involves many Knights and other parish members each evening and has become a community happening on Fridays in Lent.
