By Jasmine Hsu
The longest-running community event in Carmel will return this week, although it will look a bit different.
The Carmel Lion’s Club’s 82nd annual fish fry will serve lunch and dinner Aug. 14 drive-thru style only. Normally, the front yard of the clubhouse is filled with tables and tents as guests enjoy meals.
The changes are in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re encouraging people to go to our website to pre-order their food, and we even have a map on how to get to our property,” club member Denisse Jensen said. “Once they arrive, we’ll have people take their name so no one has to get out of their car. We’ll have all the food ready to hand to them and then they can drive on out and enjoy it at home.”
Jensen said safety plans are in place and the system has been set up to minimize contact.
“Everyone helping out will be wearing personal protective gear, and we’ve asked everyone to wear a mask when they come through the drive-thru,” Jensen said.
To personalize the menu to Carmel, the club is including special items, such as sandwiches named “The Roundabout” and “The Bike Lane.”
“We tried to have fun with our menu while also leaning into the rich, great history of Carmel,” Jensen said.
Funds raised from the fish fry will be donated to local causes the club supports, such as financial assistance for teachers, a diabetes camp for children and the Carmel United Methodist Church food pantry.
“This is much more than a meal. We are giving back to the community,” Jensen said. “I’m proud that we were able to be innovative while still meeting the very high safety guidelines that we’ve put into place to make sure this event wasn’t canceled and to hopefully raise the funds needed to give back to the community, because there’s a lot of people that really need these resources.”
Lunch will be available from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Dinner hours are 4 to 7:30 p.m. Pre-orders will be accepted through 11 p.m. Aug. 13. To learn more and pre-order food, visit carmel-lions.square.site/carmel-lions-fish-fry-preorder.
