SHENANDOAH, Pa. — One of Tom Twardzik's favorite childhood memories is sitting with his family around the dinner table in Shenandoah, eating pierogies, one of his favorite foods.
"My grandmother Mary, my dad's mother whose recipe we follow, she used to work with a group of ladies in a Polish church, and they made pierogies for their fundraisers," said Tom Twardzik, Mrs. T's president.
Shenandoah is not only Tom's birthplace but the birthplace of Mrs. T's Pierogies. And 70 years later, Mrs. T's is the largest provider of pierogies in the country, producing about 3.8 million pierogies every day.
"I don't think people really understand the breadth and scope of what we do. Anytime we've taken people through, it always seems like a shock to them. Especially when they see that first wall of pierogies coming out and are like, 'That's a lot of pierogies,'" explained Twardzik.
All of Mrs. T's pierogies are made in-house in Shenandoah. After they're done, they're shipped out to all 50 states across the country and beyond.
"We are the pierogi capital of the world. And we're all in 50 states, so that's a big part of today and why we're trying to spread what we are," said Chris Dende, the company's vice president of human resources.
Sunday is National Pierogi Day, and for the folks at Mrs. T's, it's a time to look back on the business that started in the kitchen of Tom's grandmother and grew into an international success.
"I've had service members tell me how it's a taste of home when they're overseas, and when they're deployed, they can get them at the commissary," added Twardzik.
Although the technology used to make them has changed, the family recipe has not. Mrs. T's hopes to continue making pierogies in Shenandoah for generations to come.