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Francis Fest, sponsored by St. Francis of Assisi Parish, returns Sunday for a day of fun, food and fellowship.

Previously planned to take place at St. Mary’s, it has been relocated to St. Henry’s campus. The event used to be called Festival on First, and is scheduled each year to coincide with the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, which is Saturday.

“We will have the whole stretch of Columbus Drive blocked off,” said Hispanic Ministry Pastoral Associate Hilda Santamaria.

There will be three Masses at St. Henry’s that day: bilingual 7 a.m.; English 8:30 a.m.; bilingual at 10:30 a.m.

Food, entertainment and games will run from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets will be sold for loteria (Mexican bingo) and the food stands. Cash only. (One ticket equals one dollar). Games for kids will be free of charge, and will include winning prizes.

Face painting and musicians will be on hand.

“We will have the St. Francis kids chorus sing, then have The Dance Konnection,” she added.

The Prairie Creek String Band, based in Marshalltown, will also perform. The church and school will be open during the event.

“We will have the sitting area inside the school gym and will be utilizing the bathrooms,” she said.

The food will be a mix of cuisines: burritos, steak and carnitas tacos, pupusas, pozole (a traditional stew), Mexican street corn, tortas, loose meat burgers, hot dogs and tamales. New this year will be birria quesadillas (flour tortilla) and quesabirria (corn tortilla) from Comal Kaxi, plus mole, a type of chili.

“And we’ll have a variety of sweets: cake, donuts, flan, cotton candy, cookies and kettle corn,” she noted.

Raffle tickets cost one dollar each or six for $5. These are separate tickets from the food ones. There will be two raffle announcements (using different colored tickets), with 10 prizes total. There will be a surprise raffle at the end of the event.

“We’ll use both raffle ticket colors for that so you’ll have a second chance of winning,” she said.

Raffle prizes were made possible by generous donations of both funds and items.

“We get a lot of help from the community. JBS donates meat. Iowa Premium donates meat as well. The Mexican stores help us so much with the event. Even the restaurants are generous as well,” she said.

Funds raised from ticket sales will cover the cost of general repairs at St. Mary’s and St. Henry’s churches. But she notes the why behind Francis Fest isn’t the money, but rather, the camaraderie.

“It’s more community. The people and the community look forward to the event. We just had Oktemberfest, and it was super fun for the families. Everybody got to spend time and socialize and be with people. It’s always nice to catch up with people there. I know myself, I was able to see people that I haven’t seen in a while. Life gets busy, but it’s always good to have those events to disconnect and have some fun,” she said. “I feel like food is part of what brings people together.”

Santamaria added that everyone is welcome, and not just those who are Catholic. Volunteers are always needed, especially to assist with set up and tear down. Students seeking service hours are asked to get in touch with Santamaria before Thursday if possible.

About 700 to 800 people attended last year’s event. For more information, she may be reached at: 641-752-6278 and h.santamaria@dbqarch.org.