Crosby Pasties Bring Community Together

There’s something cooking at St. Joseph’s Church in Crosby.

“Potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, onions, and top round,” said Pasty Project Coordinator Avis Puchreitor.

Put all those ingredients together, wrap it in some dough, and you’ve got yourself a pasty.

For five weeks in October, a group of women and men come together to bake 700 pasties every Wednesday.

“Every year, it seems like the word gets out further and further and we encompass a wider community,” said Puchreitor.

To find out who started this pasty project, I had to step out of the kitchen.

“We used to bring home pasties from Northern Michigan and we needed a fundraiser to make some money, and we decided that maybe we should try pasties,” said Betty Platisha, founder of the Pasty Project.

And so in 1995, the Crosby pasties were born. Back then, only 800-some pasties were made over the course of 7 weeks, and if you think the founder of the Pasty Project knew it would grow into what it is today, well…

“Absolutely not, now it just takes them minutes to them to get a full oven,” said Platisha.

From the oven, to out of the kitchen, to the customer, the group prides itself in 5-star customer service – which includes taking the pasties out to the car.

“They walk out with such smiles on their faces, it just makes you feel good,” said Puchreitor.

And you don’t have to be a church member to join the group.

“You would think it would be all members from St. Joseph’s Church, but it’s not,” said Puchreitor.

You only have to follow one rule.

“If you break it, you got to buy it, that was the extent of the interview,” said Pasty Project Volunteer Leon Schefers.

“The tender loving care that those ladies put into these pasties and all the giggling and laughing, that’s the secret, that they’re having fun,” said Platisha.

“I work with a lot of teams, this team is special, they do incredible things without worrying about how much or how little effort they’re putting into it, it’s just wonderful,” said Schefers.

“I don’t know why it attracted me so much because it’s certainly not something that is my heritage, but they’re my people, they’re definitely my people,” said Puchreitor.

People that are brought together with pasties.

The profits from the 3500 pasties that are made in October go to a variety of church needs and support local charities.