It’s the homemade food and family feeling that keep people coming back generation after generation to prepare and consume Italian delicacies made from secret recipes for the Niles Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish summer festival. “All of our food is homemade from recipes, many handed down through families, that are literally locked up in the church safe,” said Joe Merlo, chairman of the festival for six years.

Merlo and the Rev. John-Michael Lavelle, pastor of Mount Carmel Parish, talked about what has kept the festival alive as the 85th-consecutive version came to an end Sunday. “It’s the hundreds of people of the parish who work tirelessly for months to keep the tradition alive. It’s because they love their parish and community,” said Father Lavelle, a native of Hubbard who has been at Mount Carmel for six years.