Feast on roast beef at annual St. Patrick’s dinner

By: 
Steve Lyon
The annual St. Patrick’s Day community dinner will be served up this Sunday at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Weiser.
 The Catholic Women’s League at St. Agnes organizes the dinner every March. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for the church and a popular event in Weiser that dates back to the 1940s or earlier.
 In recent years, more than 500 meals have been served between sit-down meals at the parish hall and take-out orders. 
 About 50 volunteers, many of whom will be sporting green in honor of St. Patrick, have signed up to help prepare, serve and clean up after the dinner. 
 Pam Compton has been involved with the St. Patrick’s dinner for two decades, and she is serving as chairman this year. It’s a big job to organize the dinner, but she she has plenty of help. 
 “It is huge. However, we have some hard-working volunteers each year and that makes it a lot easier,” she said.
 The menu has not changed much over the years. It’s a hearty meal of tender roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, a drink and dessert. The selection of homemade desserts will include more than 80 pies, cakes and other sweet treats. 
 Compton said they have ordered 350 pounds of roast beef and 42 dozen handmade rolls, and that’s just the beginning. Harold Norris, the chef at the senior center, will be cooking and slicing the roast beef. The dinner will go through at least 50 gallons of green beans.  
 The day of the dinner starts early as members of the Knights of Columbus peel 200 or so pounds of potatoes. Other volunteers have been assigned kitchen tasks that they have done for years and are experts at, such as making the creamy mashed potatoes and gravy. 
 John and Dorothy Evans have volunteered for six or seven years now. John started out in the kitchen washing dishes, while Dorothy worked the dessert table, cutting pie after pie. In those days, they worked the entire day. They have since cut back a bit to a 3.5 hour shift in the past couple of years. After the volunteer shift they get a chance to enjoy a meal.
 “It takes a great deal of coordination of many, many workers to pull the dinner off successfully.  As for our small part, it’s tiring work, but it’s fun as well,” Dorothy said.
 The exact year the St. Patrick’s dinner in Weiser started is uncertain. Sometime in the 1940s the parish of St. Agnes held a community dinner that was served at the Pythian Castle in downtown. In the 1950s, the church served two community dinners – one on St. Patrick’s Day and one on Election Day. 
 It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the parish hall was built and the dinners were moved to the site of the church. The funds from the dinner at that time were used to pay off the building loans. The meat was donated and parish members also brought much of the food for the dinner.
 St. Agnes Catholic Church is located 214 E. Liberty St. in Weiser The St. Patrick’s Day dinner will be served on Sunday, March 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost is $8 for adults (13 and older), children 6-12 are $5 and kids 5 and under are free. Takeout is available. 

Category:

Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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