YOUNGSTOWN -- The recipe for the pirogis at St. Stanislaus Church is flour, potatoes, cheese,

YOUNGSTOWN -- The recipe for the pirogis at St. Stanislaus Church is flour, potatoes, cheese, companionship and the occasional prayer.
And the dough they make is not just for the buttery Polish dumplings. The money from the weekly pirogi making and Friday parish lunch pays the bills to keep the Williamson Avenue church warm in the winter.
It's been a wintertime tradition going back more than two decades. Tuesdays are for getting the groceries and peeling the potatoes. Wednesdays' chores include boiling the potatoes and preparing the sauerkraut and cheese fillings.
The big day is Thursday, when dozens of volunteers come in and the little crescent-shaped delicacies start flying off the assembly line and into the pots of boiling water manned by Phillip Markovitz.
At the center of it all is Father Ed Neroda, pastor of St. Stanislaus and ace pastry kneeder. The pirogi making is center of parish life for his mostly elderly flock, immigrants and children of immigrants who still celebrate a Polish-language Mass on Sundays. Four days a week, there is work, companionship and comfort food for many during a cold Youngstown winter.
At the end of the line, Tom Rudnicki packs the orders and keeps fastidious count in pencil entries in a spiral-bound ledger.
XTakeout orders can be phoned in at (330) 747-3024 from 8 a.m. to noon Thursdays and Fridays. Lunch is held at the church on Friday at 1.