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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — On the first Friday of Lent, the smell of fried fish and hush puppies filled cafeterias and gymnasiums of Catholic parishes across Louisville.

Fish is served on Fridays during Lent, the Christian season of repentance, and many churches embrace the fish fries to help raise money to support their missions.

“After a fish fry, we typically will make over $40,000,” said Mary Beth Porter, chairperson of the Holy Family fish fry.

Many parishes rely on their popular fish fries to fund a large portion of the budget. It helps keep the church and its services operating, leaders said. The COVID-19 pandemic, which canceled the tradition for at least a year, proved to be a setback for the next years when the fish cooking resumed.

This year, it feels like everything is the way it used to be.

“We rely on the funds that this generates in order to meet our budget every year,” said Rev. Mike Tobin at St. Rita. “That’s why we were so eager to return after COVID to having not only dinner, but lunch, because that’s a moneymaker: the lunch.”

The fish fries are a massive production. It takes hundreds of volunteers to pump out the meals for anyone who wants to eat.

Why do they volunteer? One word: community.

“What’s special about our fish fry is community,” Porter said. “People like to come here and catch up with old friends that they haven’t seen since last fish fry.”

“The fish is great, but it’s a sense of they’re supporting a parish community,” Tobin added.

Following several years that saw Catholic fish fries across the city depleted or restricted, things have finally come back, and so have the crowds.

The Lenten .esson is less about the fish and more about the people.

“Things have rebounded,” Tobin said. “People are so hungry for community.”

Fish fries continue through the month of March. To find a guide to Louisville-area churches’ Lenten fish fries, click here. 

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