OSHKOSH — At St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Oshkosh, the kitchen is buzzing with activity.
It's all hands on deck to make all kinds of fish, salads, sauces, and desserts from scratch for the first fish fry Friday of the Lenten season.
"Well, it takes about 100 volunteers every week to pull this off," said fish fry director Ron Bruch.
With so many volunteers, the church is able to feed a lot of empty stomachs both within the parish and the greater community.
"We've had good response really from the first year that we started this. Usually, we'll end up serving somewhere between 800 to 1,000 people every Friday night," said Bruch.
Bruch says the fish of choice in the past was perch from Lake Michigan, but now it's harder to get large quantities of the fish. Now the fish of choice is walleye with haddock and shrimp also on the menu.
"We have to order new product every week because we go through about four to 500 pounds of fish every week," said Bruch.
He says that people come in from about a 50-mile radius during the Lenten season for the fish fries. June Kocken is a parishioner and volunteer who has been coming to the fish fry for years. She says welcoming the community is one of her favorite parts of the event every year.
"Seeing all the people that come in and seeing the smiles on their faces, and they're just happy with what we're doing and they're having a good meal," said Kocken.
While the event serves as a form of community outreach for the church, Kocken says it's hard to overlook the quality of food the parishioners make.
"Oh my gosh. I love the baked and I love the fried shrimp. Those are two favorites, but everything is good," said Kocken
