Festival of Nations features flavors from around the world
The annual ethnic food celebration will take place Saturday at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish.
St. Andrew the Apostle Parish will welcome residents from across the region Saturday to enjoy authentic dishes at its ethnic food festival.
The 36th annual Festival of Nations features homemade delicacies from around the globe, from Hawaii to Italy and everywhere in between.
The festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday at the church’s Charleroi campus.
The Festival of Nations was started in 1988 by Fr. John Marcucci with tables of food in a church garage in Charleroi.
As the homemade Italian and Polish foods became more popular, the event grew each year. Eventually, booths featuring Irish, Slovak, Greek and American foods were added featuring family recipes by parishioners.
The festival was revived several years ago by Fr. Jerry Mikinos, who is now retired but still takes pride in the event each year with help from longtime volunteers and churchgoers.
Parish Business Manager Joe Caruso said Rev. Levi Hartle has only been with the parish for about a month and is “lighting this up.”
He will bring back outdoor Mass to the festival after seeing how well received it was at Summerfest held last month.
“He saw how beautiful it was and wanted to know why we weren’t doing it here for this event,” Caruso said.
Booths will shut down for Mass at 4 p.m.
“It’s really great, it embraces summer and all of the wonderful people here,” Caruso said.
The festival stopped doing outdoor Mass about 25 years ago.
“As the festival grew and pastors changed, we kind of got away from it,” Caruso said. “But I think bringing this back will be a great way to celebrate and draw a lot of people in.”
The festival offers something for everyone.
“We don’t change much because people come to the festival to enjoy the things they have for the past 30 years,” Caruso said.
From making pasta sauce to hand-cut curly fries, a lot of preparation goes into the festival.
Parish cooks have spent weeks preparing a variety of ethnic dishes.
There will be Kalua pork sandwiches, Aloha meatballs, Hawaiian coleslaw, Dolewhip and other tropical drinks at the Hawaiian booth.
A Mexican booth will feature green chili burritos, nachos, beef and chicken tacos, Mexican street corn and hand-shaken margaritas.
German food, including soft pretzels, potato pan- FESTIVAL •A2
“We don’t change much because people come to the festival to enjoy the things they have for the past 30 years.”
JOE CARUSO
PARISH BUSINESS MANAGER cakes and beer, will also be available.
One of the most exciting booths, Caruso said, is the Greek area where gyros and spanakopita offer an authentic taste of that culture’s most popular dishes.
“The gyros are just amazing, seeing the lamb spinning right there on the spit, the smell just radiates through the festival,” Caruso said.
Greek lemonade, spiked lemonade and baklava will also be sold.
Traditional Italian and Slovak dishes are always crowd favorites, including Angie DeRienzo’s marinara sauce, which is a secret family recipe.
Nearly 50 gallons of sauce will be used to cover more than 3,000 raviolis, eight pounds of gnocchi, dozens of trays of eggplant Parmesan and hundreds of meatballs.
The Italian booth will feature its meat and cheese raviolis with homemade sauce, eggplant Parmesan, gnocchi and hot and sweet sausage sandwiches that almost always sell out.
Volunteers have also been working to prepare almost 100 pounds of potatoes to hand make thousands of pierogis. They’re also preparing nearly 1,000 cabbage rolls and pounds of haluski.
“The cabbage rolls are second to none,” Caruso said. “Just absolutely delicious. Best in the Mon Valley, and I’m not just saying that.”
American food will include hot dogs, corn dogs, curly fries, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and funnel cake fries.
After filling up on global delicacies, guests should save room for dessert.
The festival bakery will sell French, English, Slovak and Irish baked goods.
Festival of Nations has been held each year since 2022 in honor of the late Peggy Foster, a parishioner of St. Andrew the Apostle Parish and a former nurse. She died March 18, 2022, six years after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
A bakery case was unveiled in her name at that year’s festival to celebrate her love of dessert, family and fellowship.
“It’s a very sweet labor of love,” Caruso said.
Foster was instrumental each year in organizing the festival bakery, which is now called “Peggy’s Pastries” in her memory.
After Peggy passed away, the church community rallied together to take over the event. Her daughters, Charlee Hartley and Autumn Kissinger, took over planning with help from the original crew who helped their mother over the years.
Each year, more and more parishioners and volunteers fill the case with sweet treats.
In addition to food and desserts, there will be small games of chance, children’s games and high-end basket raffles, along with live music by DJ Carey Charles.
“It’s really just a fun day to celebrate all these ethnicities,” Caruso said. “We usually see around 400 people, but sometimes it’s more. The weather is looking to shape up. I think the storms will steer clear and it will be a beautiful day, not too hot, so we are expecting a great crowd.”
