STONEWOOD, W.Va. (WV News) — Around 30 members of the Perpetual Daughters, the women’s group at Stonewood’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, spent the better part of Wednesday morning preparing more than 2,300 hand-rolled meatballs.
The meatballs will be paired with gallons of sauce and pounds of pasta for the more than 800 meals that will be sold during the church’s semi-annual spaghetti dinner on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. — or as long as supplies last.
The dinner is pickup only, from the church’s location at 8092 Third St. in Stonewood. Adult meals are $12, and children’s meals are $9. All meals include spaghetti and meatballs, salad, bread and dessert.
The beef for the meatballs is sourced from a local farmer, said Mary Shields, a member of the Perpetual Daughters.
“The cattle are raised here in Harrison County — they are grain-fed,” she said. “We’ve been doing that for the last two spaghetti dinners, and we find that it makes an excellent meatball.”
The church’s spaghetti dinners in October and April of 2021 were so popular, the women’s group ran out food, Shields said.
“We used to make 2,100 hundred meatballs, and I think we’re going to make a little bit more,” she said. “We pre-cook them and we get them ready for a full cooking on Sunday.”
The group will return on Thursday to prepare between 90 and 100 gallons of homemade sauce and then will make close to 100 pounds of pasta on Friday, Shields said.
“Saturday is a day of rest, and then Sunday we will hit the ground running,” she said. “We’ll start early, and the crowd will have their meals ready by 11 a.m. And then we’ll go clear through to 4 o’clock.”
Maggie Fisher, a member of the women’s group, said she’s been participating in meatball preparations “forever.”
“I’ve been a member here for decades,” she said. “We’ve had excellent response — lots of people are joining our church, and I give a lot of credit to our youth.”
Funds raised during the dinner will benefit the church and its community outreach efforts, particularly its food pantry program, Shields said.
“We’ve had a lot of success with our food pantry outreach to individuals — it’s open to anybody who has a need — and we’ve expanded a good bit,” she said. “And we are trying to get things worked up again to have more activities and opportunities for our youth group to expand.”
While the aim of the dinner is to raise funds for the church, that’s not the only benefit, Shields said.
“It’s really about the communication, the community and the laughter,” she said. “The monetary element is an important factor, like it is for any church, but the camaraderie and fellowship — A plus.”