February 24, 2022
Dear St Michael Community and Supporters,
We have faced many challenges due to the pandemic over the past few years, and among the challenges at St Michael has been fundraising which is crucial to the success of any Catholic School, including our own. Last year, the major challenge we faced was keeping everyone distanced, and we made our drive-thru work to the point that it was a huge success. This year, the main challenge is the major change in cost and availability of seafood and other supplies we need to make our fish fry the best.
Unfortunately, we have been unable to get the same size cod loins for each week at a reasonable cost, so our prices will vary from week to week depending on the size of the cod loins we are able to acquire. Shrimp costs have increased, but we think they will maintain their prices over the six weeks of the fish fry. We are planning to bring oysters back this year, but the cost of oysters has increased significantly, and the price of oysters will also vary from week to week.
Beyond the cost of seafood, the cost of other supplies such as cooking oil, mayonnaise, packaging materials, and several other items have increased, raising weekly costs by over 25% as a whole.
We take pride in the quality of our fish fry and will continue to do so. We will keep our prices as reasonable as possible, but they will be significantly different this year. Prices will be posted each week on our website and public Facebook page. Although availability of some items is questionable, we plan to have baked and fried cod, breaded shrimp, breaded oysters, fresh cut fries, baked potato, green beans, mac n cheese, and coleslaw as well as our homemade condiments and desserts. We are planning to sell items a la carte.
Many have asked if we will have a dine-in option this year. We will have limited dine-in available in the Parish Hall, and we plan to have some seating outside as well if the weather is nice. However, we anticipate most orders will continue to be carry-out or drive-thru and we will continue to try to deliver large orders during lunch.
We appreciate your continued support and understanding with these issues, and look forward to serving our community beginning on March 4!
God Bless!
Andy Arn
Principal, St Michael School