Ron Morra knows where he and dozens of his friends will be nearly every Friday during Lent.
That is in the kitchen and dining hall of Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish in Monroeville, serving food and fellowship to families.
“You give back to the parish,” said Morra, who is in his 12th year as fish fry coordinator.
“I’ve spent 50 years in hospitality. We want to make people happy. Like, ‘Wow. That was a good experience.’ If people have a good experience, then I’ve done my job and it’s helping the parish out.”
The fish fry at 245 Azalea Drive is open from 4:30 to 7 p.m. every Friday except Good Friday. Proceeds benefit the parish.
“There’s no goals,” Morra said about the fundraising. “It’s a fish fry for the parishioners and the people of the eastern suburbs. For anybody that wants to come. … It’s not about the money. It’s about the fellowship.”
The Rev. Mike Roche is in his second year at the parish. He said the fish fry is his favorite place to meet the flock outside church services.
“It’s one of the joys of being a priest,” Roche said. “To see everybody coming together — whether it’s volunteering, all the preparation that goes into it, the people who come out and patiently wait for their food. Then to witness them enjoying it and realizing we’re ultimately doing this for Jesus. It’s a really awesome thing.
“I’m grateful that we have a fish fry here and grateful for the team that puts it on so faithfully.”
The parish is a merger of six churches in 2020. Parishioners are mostly from Monroeville, Penn Hills and Pitcairn.
About 60 volunteers help out each fish Friday.
“As you can see, it’s kind of like a well-oiled machine,” Morra said.
“We’ve been doing it for so long. We’ve hopefully gotten 95% to 98% of the kinks out of the operation. When new (volunteers) come in, they sort of wean them in to see what’s going on. They don’t throw anybody into the fire on their first night.”
Menu items include pierogies, fried shrimp, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, pizza, baked and fried haddock. The fried fish is cooked with a Yuengling-based beer batter made by volunteer Linda Valentine.
They go through about 10 gallons of batter per week.
Morra said the church uses haddock instead of cod because it is less watery and has a better flavor and consistency.
His wife, Carol, makes the haluski. The most popular fish sandwich is the Pittsburgh-style with coleslaw, cheese and fries on top.
Morra estimates they go through about 1,500 pounds of fish by the end of the season. Volunteers serve at least 500 orders per week.
Volunteers include parish academy students, Knights of Columbus 4925 and the Ladies of Charity.
They are led by parishioner Matt Valentine, Linda’s husband of 33 years.
The family was among the parish fish fry’s original volunteers.
Matt Valentine said scheduling has become much easier now that everyone signs up online. Orders also are tracked via electronic devices.
“We’ve changed so much,” said Valentine, volunteer coordinator and sandwich assembler. “We’ve gotten more technological. All of our ordering is on iPads. It shoots an order form back here. Then we fill it. Our efficiency has really improved. I think our average wait time is less than 15 minutes. It wasn’t like that when we were taking paper orders.
“I think the quality of our product has stayed the same. It’s been great. We haven’t varied a lot with our menu.”
The takeout area is to the left of the main entrance. Wine and beer also are available.
For details and a menu, visit cdsfishfry.org.