The coal region borough that is home to Mrs. T's Pierogies celebrated National Pierogy Day on the anniversary of the company's first sale.
"It is that perfect pairing of pasta, potato and cheese,” Chris Dende, vice president of human resources for Mrs. T's, said at a celebration Tuesday morning in Shenandoah.
Ted Twardzik founded Mrs. T’s in 1952, when the mashed potato-filled dumplings were common in Polish households and at church fundraisers.
“He used to go to the church picnics and he would look at the lines of people waiting in line for pierogies,” Dende explained.
Twardzik left his successful accounting career in New York to establish the company named for his mother, Mary Twardzik.
“He started this business virtually from the kitchen," Dende said. "He would have women at the table making homemade pierogies, and then putting them in the Capital Market.”
The first Mrs. T’s pierogi was sold at Capital Food Market in Shenandoah on Oct. 8, 1952.
National Pierogy Day was established in 2008 to honor the comfort food and the anniversary of the first Mrs. T’s transaction. Mrs. T’s chooses to spell the word with a Y, according to its website.
Today, the product is sold in all 50 states. Ted Twardzik’s son, Tom, took over the business that now employs 230 people.
Donna Baker worked at the plant for 42 years before retiring in 2020.
“We were on Center Street in one little room,” she said of the plant when she first started. “It grew a lot.”
She was there as Mrs. T’s employees raised the “National Pierogy Day” flag at Shenandoah Borough Hall Tuesday.
“We are the pierogi capital of the world,” Dende said, touting the 600 million pierogies produced every year by the company.
Mrs. T’s offers 14 varieties, including feta and spinach, sour cream and chive, and sauerkraut flavors. The company's website has recipes for casseroles, soups and salads with pierogies, like beef stroganoff, broccoli cheddar pierogy soup, and Greek-style pierogy nachos.
Derived from the Slovak work for feast, the pierogi tradition came to Pennsylvania when Eastern Europeans migrated to the coal region in the 1800s.
Mrs. T's chooses a theme for each National Pierogy Day. This year it's "cozy season."
"The cozy season is the pierogi season," Dende said. "And it is synonymous with family, with everything going on in the world, of feeling safe, feeling warm, feeling love."
Mrs. T's employees were gifted pierogi-themed pajama pants and slippers at a luncheon in celebration of the holiday.
