Annual fish fry served 2,100 meals

by Cori Hilsgen

news@thenewsleaders.com

Once again, All Saints Academy volunteers served up a good supply of fish at the 33rd annual fish fry recently held in Heritage Hall.

With help from the St. Cloud campus, more than 2,100 meals were served. Principal Karl Terhaar said the St. Cloud campus sold more than 700 tickets and about one-third of the volunteers were from the St. Cloud campus. He expects numbers to continue to increase as more St. Cloud people learn about the fish fry.

Volunteers included ASA parents, fifth- and sixth-grade students, and alumni; as well as confirmation students and College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University students.

“Well over 140 volunteers helped keep everything running smoothly as we served about 700 people per hour during our busiest time,” Terhaar said. “Our fifth- and sixth-grade students did an excellent job busing tables and people commented on the politeness of our ASA students. To serve this many people is no small undertaking and only by ASA working as a community can we do such a large fish fry.”

Volunteer duties included busing and waiting on tables, frying fish, collecting tickets, refilling beverages and more.

Much planning and organizing went into the fish fry long before it was held and many advance tickets were sold ahead of time to guarantee a better turnout.

Students received fruit snacks for returning sold and unsold tickets. Families that sold $75 worth of tickets received vouchers for students to wear caps or slippers, to chew gum for a day or to have chocolate milk at lunch.

The menu consisted of deep-fried fish, potato salad, baked beans, carrot sticks, bread and butter, and beverages.

ASA school cook Mary Kay Pelkey ordered the food for the event. She ordered 43 cases or 1,204 pounds of Alaskan pollack, 19 pails or 665 pounds of potato salad, 100 packages of bread, 90 cans of beans and 1,500 cartons of milk.

Terhaar said money raised from the fish fry goes into the general budget.