






































Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7:1  (2018-2019): 31-55  ©  American Folklore Society 2020 

The Chocolate Easter Egg in South Central Pennsylvania: 
Cracking a Seasonal Tradition 

By: Mira Johnson and David J. Puglia 

Abstract: Each February, South Central Pennsylvania residents see signs for 
chocolate Easter eggs sold by local churches. An old recipe, the chocolate Easter 
egg became a widespread community tradition in the mid-to-late twentieth 
century in response to dwindling church attendance and revenues. This locally 
invented regional Easter egg tradition became so successful, it has literally built 
churches. In this research note, we report on results from fieldwork in the 
Middletown area that led us to consider the production of chocolate Easter eggs 
as a food event. We apply Camp’s multi-activity, multi-themed food event 
concept to the church productions’ physical manifestations, social organization, 
use of occasion, and strategies. We see the church-made chocolate Easter egg as 
an emergent Dauphin County confectionary tradition whose importance exceeds 
mere consumption, creating a sense of communitas in participating 
congregations and communities, orienting them to the calendar year, and 
providing opportunities for Christian outreach and fundraising. 

Keywords: chocolate, egg, church fundraiser, Easter, spring customs, 
Pennsylvania 

Months before Easter in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, jewel-colored treasure troves of 
foil-wrapped, chocolate-covered, peanut butter eggs, and their humbler cousins in wax 
paper packets, appear beside cash registers at gas stations, card shops, and pizza joints. 
Beyond the region, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg and the Cadbury Crème Egg dominate 
the Easter season, but in this corner of South Central Pennsylvania, chocolate eggs 
hand-dipped by retirees at local churches are coveted Easter basket fare (See Photos 1-
3). Growing up in Middletown, Pennsylvania, in the 1990s, co-author Mira Johnson has 
enjoyed church-made chocolate Easter eggs as long as she can remember. Arriving in 
Middletown in 2010, co-author David J. Puglia immediately embraced the community’s 
chocolate Easter egg custom. Curious about the depth and breadth of this regional 
foodway, we embarked on library research, fieldwork, and interviews to understand and 
document the traditional behavior surrounding the South Central Pennsylvania church-
made chocolate egg.  

Our first stop was the definitive works on Pennsylvania Dutch1 culture by leading 
Pennsylvania folklorists (Bronner and Brown 2017; Glassie 1969; Shoemaker 2000; 
Weaver 1997, 2002, 2013, and 2016; Yoder 2000), followed by the likeliest regional 
culture journals, none of which produced any results for chocolate eggs.2 In his 
authoritative Eastertide in Pennsylvania, folklorist Alfred Shoemaker wrote extensively 
on the egg as symbol in Pennsylvania Easter traditions, including egg trees and scratch-
carved Easter eggs (2000 [1960]: 49-70), but never mentioned the chocolate Easter egg 
specifically. British folklorist Venetia Newall also wrote extensively on the symbolism of 
the egg at Easter, but did not mention chocolate eggs (1971). We also searched the 
Archives of Pennsylvania Folklife and Ethnography and the Mac Barrick Collection of 



32     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

Folklife and Regional History, which yielded results on other South Central 
Pennsylvania Easter customs, but nothing on the chocolate Easter egg.  

Photo 1. Chambers Hill United Methodist Church’s milk chocolate and dark 
chocolate peanut butter egg in foil wrapper. Middletown, March 12, 2016.  
Photo: Mira Johnson. 

In our review of local cookbooks,3 we found home confectionary recipes that may have 
anticipated the chocolate egg tradition such as bonbons, Buckeye candy, chocolate balls, 
peanut butter balls, peanut butter cups, peanut butter patties, chocolate potato candy, 
and Belgian pralines. All of these candies shared at least two of three characteristics with 
the chocolate peanut butter egg: a soft peanut butter center, a chocolate coating, or a 
hand rolled production process.  

We discovered the best representation of this confection in local news media: brief, 
annual pieces on church-made chocolate Easter eggs penned by journalists. Drawing 
local journalistic attention since at least 2009, The Patriot News, the newspaper of 
record for the Capital Region of the state, has covered the chocolate peanut butter egg 
each winter in at least one story, if not more (e.g., Gleiter 2009). Often the stories are 
full-page features, with multiple photographs showcasing a particular regional church 
and its chocolate egg production. If Pennsylvania folklorists had not yet realized that the 
eggs were a regional seasonal event, local journalists certainly had. 

As Simon J. Bronner has noted, historically American folklorists have demonstrated a 
preference for traditions originating in the eighteenth and nineteenth century (1998: 9-
72), thus comparatively overlooking emergent twentieth century traditions. We 
hypothesize that the gap in the scholarly literature is due to the chocolate Easter egg 
being an emergent, twentieth century tradition in South Central Pennsylvania. In order 
to further our research, we decided to enter the field and pursue our questions through 
interviews and ethnographic data. 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 33 

Photo 2. Ebenezer United Methodist Church’s milk chocolate peanut butter egg 
in plastic wrapper. Middletown, March 12, 2016. Photo: Mira Johnson. 

Photo 3. Geyers United Method Church’s peppermint patty and dark chocolate 
peanut butter egg in parchment paper wrapper. Middletown, March 12, 2016. 
Photo: Mira Johnson. 

Although we first encountered the chocolate egg tradition in Middletown, 
Pennsylvania, we realized that chocolate eggs were also a church tradition across 
Dauphin County and neighboring York, Lebanon, Cumberland, and Lancaster 
counties in the South Central Pennsylvania region.4 We chose to focus our 
fieldwork on Middletown, Pennsylvania, however, because we have an intimate 
knowledge of 



34     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

the location, having lived there for a combined eighteen years. Although chocolate 
Easter eggs can be found beyond Pennsylvania, South Central Pennsylvania has an 
especially large number of participating churches, and Middletown has a high 
concentration of the egg-producing churches (four) in a single town (see Maps 1 and 
2). Based on our mapping of churches that actively participate in the chocolate egg 
tradition in South Central Pennsylvania, the greater metropolitan area immediately 
surrounding Harrisburg has the highest concentration. In addition, a legend 
circulates that one Middletown church, interestingly one that no longer participates 
in the tradition, introduced the chocolate Egg to Dauphin County (Epler et al. 
Interview, 2016; Leisey Interview, 2016).5  

Map 1. Pins on this Google map indicate known active chocolate Easter egg 
churches across Dauphin County and the surrounding counties in South Central 
Pennsylvania. Capitol Region of Pennsylvania, 2018. Image: Mira Johnson 
using Google map base. 

Our first contact was Nancy Swartz, lifelong resident of Middletown, active local church 
member, and longtime consumer of chocolate eggs. She proved a gateway to contacts at 
other local churches that led us ultimately to work with three: Geyers United Methodist 
Church, Middletown Presbyterian Congregation, and Ebenezer United Methodist 
Church. While all three churches have Middletown postal addresses, they provide a 
diverse sample, with Middletown Presbyterian located in the heart of downtown 
Middletown, and Ebenezer and Geyers each located four miles outside of town amid 
farmland and suburban homes on the north and south ends of town, respectively. 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 35 

Map 2. Although church-made chocolate Easter eggs can be found across the 
United States, there are an especially high concentration of egg-producing 
churches in South Central Pennsylvania. Eastern United States, 2018. Image: 
Mira Johnson, using Google map base. 

In this Research Note, we report on the results of this fieldwork, which led us to propose 
that the chocolate Easter egg is an example of a “multi-activity, multi-themed” food 
event (Camp 1989: 74). As Charles Camp explains, the significance of observing food 
events is “that by examining the intricate, varied, and often surprising ways in which 
food presents itself as part of our social proceedings, we can appreciate the full symbolic 
range and power of food in American life” (55). We use Camp’s concept of the “food 
event” (55-81) to examine these churches’ chocolate egg productions’ physical 
manifestations, social organization, use of occasion, and strategies (58-59). Camp’s 
concepts enhanced our understanding of what Jack Santino calls the “material culture of 
the holiday” (1996: 29) and thus the human behavior associated with it. With these 
insights, we hope to show how this emergent Dauphin County confectionary tradition’s 
importance exceeds its mere consumption: the chocolate egg tradition orients South 
Central Pennsylvanians to the calendar year, creates a sense of communitas in the 
participating congregations and beyond, provides an opportunity for Christian outreach, 
and offers tremendous fundraising opportunities for local churches. 

Physical Manifestations 

We began our field study by examining the “physical manifestations” (see Photo 4)—
foodstuffs and cooking processes—of the food event (Camp 1989: 58). As a foodstuff, the 
decadent chocolate treat has many names: “chocolate eggs,” “chocolate Easter eggs,” 
“candy Easter eggs,” “peanut butter eggs,” “church eggs,” “surprise eggs,” “Philadelphia 
cream cheese eggs,” and, sometimes, just “eggs.”6 



36     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

Photo 4. Comparison of five peanut butter chocolate eggs. Clockwise from left, 
Presbyterian Congregation of Middletown, Geyers United Methodist Church, 
Ebenezer United Methodist Church, Chambers Hill United Methodist Church, 
and Seven Sorrows Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Middletown, March 12, 
2016. Photo: Mira Johnson. 

One might ask why parishioners choose to make chocolate Easter treats in the form of 
an egg. Other symbols evoke the Easter season—bunnies, chicks, or flowers—and other 
shapes hold chocolate and filling—chocolate cups, chocolate balls, chocolate bars, or 
chocolate patties. In Pennsylvania’s chocolate Easter egg tradition, we find the 
foodway’s form follows function (Greenough 1958) in some respects—its oval shape is 
easier to fashion by hand than most other shapes and it most easily supports the 
chocolate covering. Yet the oval shape also conveniently resembles an egg, a 
longstanding symbol of Easter and the spring season. A traditional Easter icon laden 
with a myriad of Christian and pre-Christian symbolic layers, the egg typically 
represents fertility, material wealth, rebirth, resurrection, and the Eucharist (Newall 
1971, see also Santino 1994: 102-111). An ideal Easter symbol, the egg shape is easy to 
teach to volunteers, including children and the elderly, and forms rapidly through 
rolling and dipping. The egg form is also economical. As a geometric ovoid, the egg 
shape boasts one of the best surface area-to-volume ratios of any geometric shape, 
allowing for a generous-looking surface that actually uses the least amount of the most 
expensive ingredient, chocolate, relying on the cheaper filling to make up the bulk of the 
product.  

Some churches have experimented with other candy, such as chocolate-covered 
lollipops, but those designs proved cumbersome because removing lollipops from molds 
without breaking them required additional skill and time (Leisey Interview, 2016). The 
egg recipe allows a wide variety of filling flavors, broadening customer reach and 
popularity. Churches can try novel flavor combinations, and fads do emerge. Dark 
chocolate covered peanut butter has surged in popularity, due to positive press for dark 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 37 

chocolate’s health benefits, and white chocolate covered peanut butter has also found a 
following (Leisey Interview, 2016). 

In our review of the chocolate egg’s basic ingredients and variation, we found all 
participating Pennsylvania churches offer the basic peanut butter chocolate egg, and 
each church has expanded into additional chocolate types and fillings. Some churches 
prefer to specialize in a few flavors, such as Ebenezer United Methodist Church, which 
limits its product line to milk chocolate with peanut butter, coconut cream, or 
buttercream. Others, such as Middletown Presbyterian and Seven Sorrows Catholic 
Church, expanded to include white chocolate peanut butter and dark chocolate 
variations on peanut butter, buttercream, coconut cream, and mint. Some new flavors 
prove more popular than others, and failures do happen. For example, Geyers Church 
piloted a fruit and nut chocolate egg, but abandoned it after poor sales (Epler et al. 
Interview, 2016). Each church covets its own “secret” recipe, but the basic ingredient 
lists are all very similar. The recipe for the classic milk chocolate peanut butter egg, for 
example, is 10X or 6X sugar (also called powdered or confectioner’s sugar), margarine 
or butter, milk, cream cheese, chocolate, and peanut butter. Because the Pennsylvania 
Department of Agriculture’s regulations require churches to list all ingredients on the 
packaging, the amounts and sources of the ingredients and the production process are 
the recipe’s secret. 

While the chocolate eggs are homemade, the chocolate is not. The Middletown churches 
procure many tons of chocolate, notably from a single local chocolate company. The two 
most mentioned chocolate companies in our interviews were Wilbur Chocolate and the 
Hershey Company, both South Central Pennsylvanian institutions. Only Wilbur receives 
church business today. In fact, every church willing to disclose their chocolate 
distributor told us Wilbur was their chocolate of choice (Blaydon, Epler et al., and Leisey 
Interviews, 2016; Sue Gleiter 2015b). Geyers Church, for example, had originally 
selected Hershey as their chocolate vendor because one of its parishioners was a 
Hershey employee. But decades ago Hershey discontinued small-scale chocolate 
distribution, and Geyers switched to Wilbur, which manufactures in nearby Lititz, 
Pennsylvania (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). Every church group we spoke to expressed 
pride in the quality and purity of their chocolate. Although we never learned the culprit, 
each church also expressed disdain for churches that increase profit margins by 
substituting chocolate paraffin wafers for pure chocolate bars, a choice that some say 
inflicts an unappealing waxy taste. 

While every church relies on the same types of ingredients, each has its own “cooking 
process” (Camp 1989: 58)—which includes recipes, proportions, and production 
processes—that makes its chocolate eggs unique. As Diana Shugart of St. Paul 
Evangelical Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, explained, “what makes [our] eggs special 
from others out there is not just the recipe, but the process and the effort the volunteers 
put into making each one” (Madison 2014). Similarly, Jay Epler, the senior mixer for 
Geyers Church, told us that mixing requires an intuition born of experience—“a little bit 
of this, a little bit of that”—until the filling reaches the desired consistency (Interview, 
2016). Consequently, even Jay does not know his exact recipe, but rather feels his way to 
it.  



38     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

Geyers Church actually has a written chocolate egg recipe, but their parishioners 
disagree over how secret the recipe is. Some told us it was locked in the church vault, 
while others said it was tacked to the kitchen wall for anyone to see. But even if a secret 
recipe was held under lock and key, the Geyers chocolate egg’s essence is bound to an 
“active tradition bearer” like Jay Epler (von Sydow 1999 [1927]). The intuitive aspect of 
the recipe is why it is important for traditional practitioners like Jay to share their 
methods with apprentices, as Jay now does with two younger church members. 
Otherwise, the secret of Geyers’ eggs would disappear when Jay retires from leading the 
mixing. 

During egg-production season, the churches work on tight, efficient schedules, and 
while each church operates independently, the cooking process is similar (Blaydon, 
Epler et al., and Leisey Interviews, 2016). Churches hold their first chocolate egg 
meeting in December or January, and production begins six to ten weeks before Easter, 
depending on the church’s ambition (Dan Gleiter 2014, Sue Gleiter 2018b, Madison 
2014). As with the Christmas shopping season, some churches complain the start date 
creeps earlier each year due to competition (see Santino 1994: 6, 176-177). The church 
crews work hard for one and a half to two and a half months, but all agree egg 
production ceases during Holy Week, the final week before Easter. Volunteers can be 
found in the kitchen mixing, rolling, dipping, trimming, and wrapping two to three days 
a week, often Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, although this schedule varies by the 
size of the operation. Retirees dominate the chocolate egg crews (Blaydon, Epler et al., 
and Leisey Interviews, 2016; Madison 2014). Participants who work day jobs often limit 
themselves to one day per week, while retired and elderly volunteers subject themselves 
to a rigorous schedule, working late into the night one day and rising early to begin 
again at 8 a.m. the following day. While local stores sell the churches’ chocolate eggs 
daily (for example, see Photo 5), churches do bulk distribution on Saturdays. When the 
grueling egg season ends, churches celebrate with a potluck. Ironically, chocolate eggs 
are usually not found at the feast.7 

The “organization of tasks” (Camp 1989: 58) in chocolate egg production assigns 
particular jobs to church members, and these identities stick. Volunteers have a sense of 
their best skills and proficiencies, and memories of past mistakes linger. Participants 
are split into Mixers, Rollers (the “holy rollers”8), Dippers, Trimmers, and Wrappers 
(Blaydon, Epler et al., and Leisey Interviews, 2016; Klaus 2011; Sauro 2014; Sue Gleiter 
2015b and 2018b). 

Mixing is considered the most masculine job, as it requires strength to lift large bags of 
ingredients. Mixing is also highly respected, as it requires an intuition gained through 
years of practice for adding ingredients and achieving consistency. Dipping, perhaps 
unexpectedly, is considered the most exacting job. Dippers require precision and an 
instinctive “feel” for the art of dipping. A poorly dipped egg will look messy, and an over-
dipped egg, in addition to wasting chocolate, will not fit in its wrapper. Wrapping is for 
the very old and very young, or those who are less able to take on the more physically 
demanding jobs. That is not to say wrapping is not strenuous. It requires tedious 
repetition of small movements for hours on end.  



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 39 

Photo 5. Middletown Pharmacy & Gifts seasonal display of chocolate eggs. The 
top four rows are Seven Sorrows. The middle row is Presbyterian Congregation 
of Middletown. The bottom three rows are Ebenezer United Method Church. 
Each bin holds a different variety of chocolate egg. Middletown, March 12, 2016. 
Photo: Mira Johnson. 

Once the egg is dipped, trimmed, and wrapped, the most onerous job remains: sales. 
The sales directors cold call local businesses and encourage them to sell their chocolate 
eggs, often at cost, and at times in competition with other churches’ eggs already on 
their counters. In addition, they keep track of hundreds of bulk orders, with nothing but 



40     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

a volunteer workforce and, in most cases, hand-written account books. We noted that, 
in the churches we researched, while the volunteers mostly consisted of a mixed group 
of retired men and women, all sales directors were women (Blaydon, Epler et al., and 
Leisey Interviews, 2016). 

Social Organization 

Examining the “social organization” (Camp 1989: 58) of this tradition revealed women’s 
significant role in the church chocolate egg event. As Santino notes, women have long 
played a role in coordinating holiday celebrations, particularly through foodways 
(Santino 1994: 25). Bake sales and culinary philanthropy have been grounded in the 
realm of women’s work in America, dating back at least to the nineteenth century (see 
Gifford 2016; Women’s Philanthropy Institute 2010). At that time, women were actively 
discouraged from participating in the public sphere, but they did work on behalf of 
causes they were passionate about. Fundraisers such as bake sales, fairs, variety shows, 
and cookbook sales were deemed within the domestic sphere, allowing women to step 
covertly into commerce—establishing bank accounts, finding suppliers and outlets, and 
ultimately managing the use of funds raised. While no longer facing the same 
restrictions as in the past, American women have carried these traditions in 
philanthropy into the present day. 

Women in Middletown churches follow this trend, and there is a local tradition of 
church women’s groups raising funds through food, such as the Queen Esthers of St. 
Peter’s Lutheran Church. The Queen Esthers were the female counterpart to the 
church’s male Bible study group, the Arthur King Bible Class. Both groups served at 
gender-segregated gatherings for Bible study, socializing and fundraising. It was the 
Queen Esthers who oversaw the fundraising projects of the church, including bake sales, 
church and community dinners, and Fastnacht (doughnut) sales on Fat Tuesday before 
the season of Lent. Similarly, other Middletown churches had their own women’s 
groups, for instance, the Dorcas class at the Riverside Chapel Methodist Church (Swartz 
Interview, 2016). 

The male-female binary is an emic categorization recognized by these churches and the 
participants we interviewed (Blaydon, Epler et al., Leisey, and Swartz Interviews, 2016). 
Over the past several decades the gendering of these fundraising responsibilities has 
become less distinct as most of the separate men’s and women’s groups have combined 
for joint Bible study and fundraising efforts. However, this history has left its mark on 
food-based fundraising events such as the chocolate egg, where women still oversee 
most aspects of production and finances and are more represented among the 
volunteers (Epler et al. and Leisey Interviews, 2016). Notably, while men and women 
take part in all aspects of egg production in the churches we researched, we found that 
there still remain ideas of certain tasks being gendered “male” or “female.” For instance, 
a common theme in our interviews was that “Mixer,” the job where volunteers work with 
industrial-sized standing mixers to combine ingredients, is masculine, because workers 
need to be strong enough to lift the large bags of ingredients (Blaydon, Epler et al., and 
Leisey Interviews, 2016; Sue Gleiter 2015b; Klaus 2011). Yet the concept of normative 
gender roles expressed in this distinction is directly contradicted by evidence, as we 
learned from each church that both men and women take part in all aspects of the egg 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 41 

process, from mixing to rolling to dipping to wrapping, and all aspects of sales, from 
marketing to delivery. 

Our interviewees speculated that women began as leaders in these food-fundraising 
endeavors because they were more likely to be at home, more likely to have culinary 
skills, and more likely to have broad social networks for connecting with local 
businesses (Blaydon, Epler et al., Leisey, and Swartz Interviews, 2016). In subsequent 
generations, they explained, more women entered the workforce, leaving less time to 
devote to volunteer church work. Consequently, chocolate egg leadership roles shifted 
from stay-at-home mothers to retired parishioners, an important chocolate egg 
volunteer demographic today. This shift has led to concern over who will assume 
leadership positions in the tradition, as the current crop of retirees becomes too old to 
participate (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). 

Beyond its historic importance as a leadership opportunity for women, chocolate Easter 
egg production also offers a sense of communitas for all volunteers by fostering a 
heighted sense of group cohesion (cf. Humphrey 1988). A recurring theme for chocolate 
egg volunteers in our interviews was the joy of making the eggs every year. Central 
Pennsylvanian winters can be harsh and isolating. Chocolate egg production gets 
volunteers out of the house and back to having fun as a group during winter’s bleakest 
stretch. As Diana Shugart of St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church explained, “the 
peanut butter egg production not only helps the church make some extra funds for the 
community, but also helps to keep some of the older members busy and moving” 
(Madison 2014). Volunteers claim the camaraderie and fellowship felt during egg 
production are unmatched the rest of the year (Epler et al. Interview, 2016; see also Sue 
Gleiter 2015b).9 In fact, chocolate egg production is so beloved that the legend of one 
particularly persistent octogenarian has become a permanent part of Geyers Church 
lore. One winter morning, the elderly woman was so excited by the thought of making 
chocolate eggs that she left her house without her car keys or house keys. When she 
realized she was locked out of her car and her house, she drove her riding lawn mower 
two miles down the road to make eggs (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). Perhaps less 
dramatic but equally committed, full-time employees will take days off just to 
participate. Tim Stein, one of Geyers Church’s volunteer coordinators, estimates more 
people volunteer to help with chocolate egg production than actually attend Geyers 
Church (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). This heighted sense of community that the 
participants feel is demonstrated annually by the volunteers’ commitment to attending 
and participating in the chocolate egg-making event. 

Just as the egg tradition has deep social significance for the producers, it also proves to 
be socially meaningful to its consumers, who experience a sense of communitas through 
the purchase and consumption of chocolate Easter eggs. The heightened sense of 
community is potent enough to reach beyond the churches’ kitchens to people who do 
not identify as formal members of the church, but do identify as part of the broader 
Middletown community that holds this egg tradition. For South Central Pennsylvanian 
residents, there is an observable shared sense of anticipation and excitement as egg 
season rolls around each year (see Photos 6-8). Once Fat Tuesday has passed and locals 
have gorged themselves on Fastnachts, Pączki, and King Cake, residents begin the 
lookout for chocolate eggs to appear at local registers. Finding the first eggs of the 



42     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

season is an exciting moment suggesting that Easter and spring are on the horizon. 
While some are happy to buy their eggs haphazardly, whenever and wherever they feel a 
craving, there are many who profess an allegiance to certain church eggs, traveling out 
of their way to buy their favorite “brand” (Swartz Interview, 2016, see also Sue Gleiter 
2015b, 2018a). The comment section of the regular “Best Chocolate Easter Egg” poll in 
PennLive, the shared online platform for regional newspapers, is perhaps the best 
example of consumers’ passionate commitment to their favorite church eggs and 
provides an opportunity to perform their identities as members of a particular church 
community, a broader Christian community, or a town or regional community (for 
example, see Sue Gleiter 2015b). 

Photo 6. Ebenezer United Methodist Church electronic scrolling billboard 
displaying chocolate egg varieties and the phone number to order. 
Middletown, March 12, 2016. Photo: Mira Johnson. 

This confectionary tradition sticks with Pennsylvanians as they move beyond the 
Keystone State’s borders. As Pennsylvania’s emigrants cannot easily find “authentic” 
chocolate eggs elsewhere—and would be otherwise forced to settle for mass-made 
substitutes—customers phone in orders from across the United States. In addition, local 
Pennsylvanians send chocolate eggs to all parts of the world. For example, Geyers 
Church’s Tim Stein mentioned families shipping chocolate eggs to Pennsylvania troops 
stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan (Epler et al. Interview, 2016; see also Sauro 2014). 
Sales Director Susie Epler in 2016 shipped chocolate eggs to California, Idaho, Florida, 
Michigan, and Georgia. As she took phone orders, she learned most customers were 
former Pennsylvanians with family connections to Pennsylvania, some specifically to the 
area immediately surrounding Geyers Church (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 43 

Photo 7. A Geyers Church road sign announcing “Candy Easter Eggs” with 
phone number and bulk discount information. Middletown, March 12, 2016. 
Photo: Mira Johnson. 

Photo 8. A sign announcing the chocolate egg season outside Middletown 
Pharmacy & Gift Shop at 436 East Main Street. Middletown, March 12, 2016. 
Photo: Mira Johnson. 



44     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

Occasion 

In his schema of a food event, Camp suggests examining the frequency and significance 
of an “occasion” to understand its role in the seasonal celebrations of a community 
(Camp 1989: 58). As one of Dauphin County’s regular food event occasions, the 
chocolate egg’s “frequency” is both annual and seasonal. Like holidays in general, the 
chocolate Easter egg orients the community to the calendar year. As Santino explains, 
holidays, like the seasons, are “deliberately cyclical”—"the cycle repeats and the year 
goes around, always connected to the past, always moving toward the future” (Santino 
1994: 111). Holidays provide a “symbolic syntax of the year” (Santino 1994: 17), 
preparing us for the turn from one season to the next, from winter into spring, 
reminding us of our passage through time, through the year, and through life. The egg 
tradition is one that occurs in the winter, but is forward-looking, preparing for the 
coming of Easter and spring.  

Much like Halloween candy corn or Christmas candy canes, chocolate eggs are a 
seasonal treat. In fact, The Patriot News has come to refer to this time of year as 
“peanut butter egg season” (Sue Gleiter 2018a). While a few Pennsylvanians mentioned 
freezing chocolate eggs for later, the passion for their consumption clusters from 
February through Easter. The chocolate egg is a cold-weather candy, one whose 
temperamental key ingredient, chocolate, would be more difficult to handle, distribute, 
and consume during warmer times of the year. A rich, decadent winter delight, the 
chocolate egg appears in many ways the opposite of another seasonal Pennsylvania 
treat, the Fastnacht (Shoemaker 2000 [1960]: 1-8). In the Fastnacht, practical 
Pennsylvanians put their excess lard to efficient and tasty use, creating homemade 
doughnuts before the skimpy weeks of Lent begin. Chocolate eggs, on the other hand, 
are decadent and sugary treats sold and eaten during the Lenten season. Considering 
the unveiling of the seasons, Santino notes, “People are as concerned with a changing of 
the seasons as they are with the season they are in at any given moment” (Santino 1994: 
7). A few interviewees remembered chocolate eggs as originally destined for children’s 
Easter baskets (Blaydon and Swartz Interviews, 2016, see also Sue Gleiter 2009). 
Whether or not that was the case, profits and desirability have made offering and 
consuming chocolate eggs commonplace weeks and even months before Easter. 
Interviewees less concerned with this irony point out that Protestants, whose churches 
originated the tradition in the area, do not practice the ascetic Catholic Lent (Leisey and 
Swartz Interviews, 2016), in which “the faithful are asked to make personal sacrifices in 
remembrance of the sacrifice Christ made on the cross” (Santino 1996: 103). 
Pennsylvanians have made these eggs a regular indulgence during the supposedly 
abstemious period of Lent. 

(In)frequency also plays a role in the demand for chocolate eggs, since selling is limited 
to a couple months per year, which keeps supply low and demand high. For these 
fortunate South Central Pennsylvania churches, demand during Lent for the chocolate 
eggs is such that customers will scour multiple shops hunting for their favorite flavors or 
“brands” (Sauro 2014, Dan Gleiter 2014, Sue Gleiter 2015a, 2015b, 2018a, 2018b), and 
churches can expect their stock to sell out by Easter, if not a week or two before (Sue 
Gleiter 2009, Leisey and Swartz Interviews, 2016). For example, in Geyers Church, we 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 45 

found men and women arriving at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning, picking up huge batch 
orders of chocolate eggs (see Photo 9).  

Photo 9. Wilma Epler, Jay Epler, and Tim Stein distribute bulk orders early 
Saturday morning for Geyers United Methodist Church. Middletown, March 12, 
2016. Photo: Mira Johnson. 

The chocolate egg’s “significance” is religious and regional, although its religious 
significance appears secondary to its regional significance. As noted earlier, 
ecclesiastically, the egg is a traditional Christian symbol of Easter and the resurrection 
(Newall 1971, Santino 1994: 102-111) and notably it is the churches that sustain the 
annual chocolate egg tradition. One might expect this annual tradition to spread farther, 
as it generates between $10,000 to $200,000 (tax-free) per church over a ten-week 
span. But the success requires a local enthusiasm difficult to emulate. Equally as 
important as the churches’ tradition of making the eggs is the local community’s 
tradition of yearning for, buying, and consuming the eggs each Lenten season (for 
example, see Sue Gleiter 2012, 2015b, 2018a). Santino examines how the candy industry 
changes packaging sequentially for marketing its products according to the seasons 
(Santino 1996: 31-34). Similarly, the churches have tapped into regional foodways 
serialization, which relies on an anticipated regional foodway to help demarcate the 
seasons of the year. Locals agree. For example, Sue Gleiter, the Food Editor for 
PennLive, recently declared “no candy signifies Easter in central Pennsylvania more 
than peanut butter eggs” (2015b). 

Strategies 

Chocolate Easter eggs are not only sweet seasonal treats, but from production to 
consumption, the chocolate egg is also used as a “strategy” (Camp 1989: 58) in the 
Middletown community to accomplish religious and economic goals. Santino 



46     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

acknowledges commercial holiday enterprises have a profound economic impact in the 
United States, but cautions folklorists not to dismiss them for that reason alone. Rather, 
he argues we should view this profound economic activity and this vast material output 
as evidence of American holidays’ great cultural importance (Santino 1996: 30). The 
seasonal chocolate egg event combines the strategic church activities of fundraising and 
Christian outreach.10 

Locals credit Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church on Spruce Street in Middletown, 
Pennsylvania, as the chocolate egg fundraiser originator in the 1960s. The idea then 
spread to other local churches (Epler et al., and Leisey Interviews, 2016). For example, 
in the 1970s, Geyers United Methodist Church’s Susie Epler, then a young stay-at-home 
mother, brought the chocolate egg idea to her congregation as a strategy to fund an 
urgently needed new church building. She and another parishioner, Wilma Epler, 
toured the Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s egg-making operation, borrowed a 
chocolate egg recipe from one of their own parishioners, and began their own egg-
making venture in Susie’s kitchen. Their early humble sales increased annually, 
reaching 162,000 eggs sold in 1978, the church’s most lucrative year on record. In 1983, 
ten years after constructing their new church building, the congregation had paid its 
loan in full, largely funded by what Geyers Church historical records call “the Easter egg 
project.” The Egg Project is so central to the church that it is included in the church’s 
official history.11 Chocolate Easter egg sales had literally built the new Geyers Church. 
Chocolate Easter egg fundraisers continued to spread through the South Central 
Pennsylvania church community in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Some customers buy eggs to support specific churches, while others are happy to 
support the local Christian community in general, and still others just enjoy chocolate 
eggs. To support the churches, some businesses will sell the chocolate eggs at cost, 
taking no profits for themselves and donating all proceeds to the churches. Others will 
gladly sell the eggs at a mark up—from a nominal 10¢ to a considerable 50¢—earning for 
both the church and themselves. Fundraising can also be contentious among local 
church communities. Some non-participating churches in the South Central 
Pennsylvania region shun the chocolate egg tradition as a forbidden form of fundraising 
(Epler et al., Leisey, and Swartz Interviews, 2016). While churches require funds to 
operate, the dissenting churches’ expectations are that sustaining donations should 
come from church members, not from peddling products. 

This sales model raises questions about the relationship between churches and 
capitalism. While the churches are legally nonprofit organizations, the chocolate egg 
endeavors, nonetheless, can earn sizeable profits that will help carry them through 
leaner times of the year. Like savvy business operations, the churches heed customer 
preferences. For example, Geyers Church responded to customer complaints about how 
their intense mint filling overpowered the thin chocolate shell (Epler et al. Interview, 
2016). The congregation tweaked the recipe, shifting from an egg to a patty shape, 
thereby increasing the chocolate to mint ratio. Now these mint patties are a popular 
contender with the chocolate peanut butter egg. Other churches have experimented with 
other Easter candies—for example Middletown Presbyterian tried chocolate lollipops 
molded into Easter shapes but discontinued them after finding them more difficult to 
make and slower to sell (Leisey Interview, 2016). Seven Sorrows Catholic Church 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 47 

combines egg sales with a second fundraiser, a fish fry every Friday of Lent, a popular 
local event even among non-Catholics: while diners wait for their fish, the parishioners 
do a brisk trade in chocolate eggs. 

The question of whether churches consider themselves to be in competition receives sly 
grins. Some say no; others admit to a friendly rivalry. None are willing to admit cut-
throat competition, even with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake (Blaydon, Epler 
et al., and Leisey Interviews, 2016).12 The egg project proceeds contribute to various 
charitable causes, including mission work (Dan Gleiter 2012, Sue Gleiter 2012), youth 
groups (Sauro 2014), scholarships (Sue Gleiter 2015b), church-run schools (Sue Gleiter 
2018b), community organizations (Madison 2014), and the churches’ general funds (Sue 
Gleiter 2018b, Madison 2014). While the profits could be crucial to saving a church 
building or adding accessibility features to retain and grow membership,13 the entire 
venture is seen as “for a good cause” so stomping out competition would be frowned 
upon.  

The churches engage in limited advertising in local papers and the occasional friendly 
write up. In 2016, one church caused a stir by running a local radio commercial (Leisey 
Interview, 2016). On the other hand, churches do not concern themselves with slippage 
and debts. Sales directors learn to expect chocolate eggs to “grow legs and walk off” and 
to accept occasional accounting peculiarities, like a $90 return on one hundred $1 eggs 
(Leisey Interview, 2016).  

The chocolate Easter egg project is run as a business, but should not be mistaken for a 
for-profit business, a distinction the churches are careful to point out. While the sales 
representatives, the lingo, and the paperwork are reminiscent of the business world, 
these are retired nurses and schoolteachers, farmers and homemakers, learning on the 
fly, hoping to help the church, and realizing that the operation must run efficiently if 
they hope to be successful in this bustling and competitive church industry. It is 
important for the church to maintain that these activities are not a business, but strictly 
a fundraiser for charity and church expenses, for legal reasons. Interviewees told us that 
in recent years church fundraisers have increasingly come under the scrutiny of the 
state, and they suspect that the growing number of churches in the region that 
participate in egg fundraisers are becoming an attractive potential source of tax revenue 
(Epler et al., and Leisey Interviews, 2016). 

The chocolate egg fundraisers can also act as a form of Christian evangelism. Geyers 
Church’s sales director Susie Epler’s outreach strategy is to encourage anyone who 
purchases chocolate eggs also to visit the church and help make eggs. Geyers has noticed 
that those involved with chocolate eggs in any way, whether dipping them or picking up 
a box, are more likely to participate in other church activities. In this way, the chocolate 
egg is an accessible entry point to the church. Unique to Geyers, the church includes its 
service information on the packaging (see Photo 10). In addition, the chocolate eggs 
highlight the Christian community during the holiest time of the Christian calendar by 
their symbolic placement beside registers in local shops, making them more visible. This 
network of involvement expands throughout the community to include egg-making 
volunteers, shopkeepers, and customers, connecting and including all participants to the 
churches, even if they are otherwise not a part of Middletown’s Christian community. 



48     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

Photo 10. Geyers United Methodist Church’s message affixed to the top of every 
box (20 eggs) order. Middletown, March 12, 2016. Photo: Mira Johnson. 

Conclusion: The Yolk of Tradition 

Chocolate Easter eggs are a local tradition in South Central Pennsylvania, which we have 
documented specifically in the Middletown area of southern Dauphin County. Local 
interest far exceeds scholarly attention at the moment. We argued that the scholarly 
oversight of chocolate eggs was likely due to its status as an emergent tradition, arising 
later than the nineteenth century, and becoming more robust since the 1960s. Upon 
closer inspection, chocolate eggs proved to be not just a candy but an entire food event, 
one even more important to the community than we originally hypothesized, branching 
into a variety of community-building functions. While it was originally the chocolate egg 
itself that caught our attention, by necessity our interest quickly expanded to include the 
production process, sales, marketing, and competition that occurs annually behind a 
cordial veil of Christian charity. We are interested in hearing others’ experiences with 
church-made and homemade, filled chocolate eggs in other parts of the United States 
and would gladly welcome more access to church cookbooks, home cookbooks, church 
records, or any sources that include chocolate eggs or church food preparation practices 
for fundraising. 

The repetition and variation apparent in the tradition demonstrates the folkloric nature 
of this confection, yet there are forces at work that are more representative of the 
American capitalistic system that integrates aspects of “the traditional” with the 
American entrepreneurial spirit. Large-scale production, churches, local businesses, and 
commerce meld with traditional practitioners, home recipes, and local taste to form a 
notable Dauphin County food event. Our findings add to the large existing literature of 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 49 

Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Dutch foodways, putting the chocolate Easter egg in its 
rightful place beside the Fastnacht, Shoofly Pie, and Pork and Sauerkraut. In the future, 
we would like to deduce the exact parameters of this phenomenon. We see three 
pathways for future chocolate egg research. First, more research is needed on the 
development of the chocolate Easter egg recipe from its purported predecessors (such as 
opera fudge and fondant eggs), and its relationship to its commercial cousin, the 
Reese’s Peanut Butter Easter Egg.14 Which came first—the Reese’s or the church egg? 
Second, this research revealed to us that there is a wealth of data waiting to be mined on 
the complex networks that local churches construct to tie communities together, many 
of which are created and fostered through food. From monthly church dinners, to 
seasonal foodways fundraisers, to food banks to communion bread bakers and bakeries, 
these networks stretch to surprising places. Third, more research should be undertaken 
on how the chocolate egg ties into church fundraising events, church volunteerism and 
productions, and monastery “commercial” food production, in Pennsylvania and 
beyond. In addition to the folkloric findings, we hope this research demonstrates the 
hard work and dedication that these huge undertakings require from committed 
volunteers and the impact they have on their communities. These little eggs can hatch 
big schemes! 

References Cited 

Scholarly Secondary Sources 
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Bronner, Simon J., and Joshua R. Brown, eds. 2017. Pennsylvania Germans: An 
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Camp, Charles. 1989. American Foodways: What, When, Why and How We Eat in 
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Glassie, Henry. 1969. Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States. 
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Greenough, Horatio. 1958. Form and Function: Remarks on Art, Design, and 
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Newall, Venetia. 1971. An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study. Bloomington: Indiana 
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Santino, Jack. 1994. All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life. 
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——. 1996. New Old-Fashioned Ways: Holidays and Popular Culture. Knoxville: 
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Shoemaker, Alfred L. 2000 [1960]. Eastertide in Pennsylvania: A Folk-Cultural Study. 
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Weaver, William Woys. 1997. Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking. New York: 
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——. 2014. Chocolate Easter Eggs by the Thousands 2014. PennLive, March 11. 
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——. 2012. Peanut Butter Eggs Go Up in Price But Aren’t Expected to Fall in Popularity. 
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——. 2015a. Who Makes the Best Peanut Butter Eggs in Central Pa. for Easter? Cast 
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——. 2018a. Peanut Butter Eggs 2018: Who Makes the Best in Central Pennsylvania? 
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Klaus, Mary. 2011. Steelton Fire Department Makes and Sells Easter Eggs as Fundraiser. 
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Madison, Samantha. 2014. St. Paul Church Creates Peanut Butter-and-Chocolate Eggs. 
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Tugend, Alina. 2016. Donations to Religious Institutions Fall as Values Change. The 
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Sauro, Sean. 2014. Edible Easter Eggs are Bound for Troops in Afghanistan. Perry 
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52     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

Cookbooks and Church Materials 
Frey Village. c. 1980s. The Frey Village Cookbook. np. 

Geyers United Methodist Church. nd. Church History. np. 

Groff, Betty, and Diane Williamson Stoneback. 2001. Betty Groff Cookbook: 
Pennsylvania German Recipes. Atlanta, GA: RB Books. 

Middletown Presbyterian Congregation. 2006. Favorite Recipes. Kearney, NE: Morris 
Press Cookbooks. 

Presbyterian Women’s Association Middletown, Pennsylvania. c. 1960s. Home Cooking 
Secrets of Middletown. np. 

Redcay, Ruth. 1960. Amish Dutch Cookbook. Ephrata, PA: Science Press. 

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church. c. 1943. Kitchenology. np. 

Interviews 
Blaydon, Harriet, Ebenezer United Methodist Church. 2016. Interview with authors. 
March 11. 

Epler, Jay, Wilma Epler, Susie Epler, and Tim Stein, Geyers United Methodist Church. 
2016. Interview with authors. March 12. 

Leisey, Mary, Middletown Presbyterian Congregation. 2016. Interview with authors. 
March 13. 

Swartz, Nancy, St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. 2016. Interview with authors. 
March 11.  

Notes 

1 We use the term “Pennsylvania Dutch” to refer to a hybridized New World cultural 
group of shared heritage immigrants mainly from the Rhineland area arriving in the 
United States in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, distinct from other 
waves of immigration from other parts of Germany. At the time of immigration, what we 
now refer to as Germany was a complex of small, divided territories known as the Holy 
Roman Empire, including parts of modern-day Germany, Switzerland, and France. We 
use the term Pennsylvania Dutch, as opposed to Pennsylvania German, because this was 
the emic term used by the descendants of early immigrants to refer to themselves 
(Bronner and Brown 2017: ix-x). 

2 Folklore scholars have long devoted attention to Pennsylvania traditions, especially as 
practiced by Pennsylvania Dutch. Publication venues abound in the region for such 
idiosyncratic studies, including Pennsylvania Dutchman, Pennsylvania Folklife, and 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 53 

the many publications of the Pennsylvania German Society. But unlike the extensive 
coverage of Fastnachts, Shoofly Pie, and Pork and Sauerkraut in these publications, 
chocolate eggs have not yet made it between these covers. Similarly William Woys 
Weaver, the doyen of Pennsylvania foodways, never mentions the chocolate egg 
tradition in his Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking (1997), Sauerkraut Yankees: 
Pennsylvania Dutch Foods & Foodways (2002), As American as Shoofly Pie (2013), 
and Dutch Treats (2016). Nor does the topic receive consideration in Yoder’s 
Discovering American Folklife: Essays on Folk Culture & the Pennsylvania Dutch or 
Bronner and Brown’s Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (2017). 

3 In fact, we found several recipes in local church cookbooks from the 1940s and 1960s 
for opera fudge and peanut butter candy, which interviewees suggested were 
antecedents of the chocolate egg recipe (Presbyterian Women’s Association, c. 1960s: 
31; St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, c. 1943). A few women told us they continued to make 
chocolate eggs at home, although it is less common because it is a difficult and time-
consuming confection to make in small batches. Geyers Church’s Susie Epler, for 
example, makes a homemade chocolate egg with marshmallow fluff filling. Our search of 
more recent local church cookbooks found that several chocolate egg recipes and similar 
fudge recipes continue in parishioners’ kitchens (Middletown Presbyterian 
Congregation, 2006: 83, The Frey Village Cookbook, c. 1980s: 138). These local 
cookbooks had more chocolate egg-related materials than did the well-known, more 
widely-circulated Pennsylvania cookbooks (Groff and Stonback 2001, Redcay 1960). 

4 Numerous churches in areas bordering South Central Pennsylvania also seem to be 
cultivating a church-made chocolate Easter egg tradition, such as Altoona First Grace 
Brethren Church, (Altoona, PA), Bethesda United Methodist Church (Philadelphia), 
Trinity United Methodist Church (Catonsville, MD), and Centenary United Methodist 
Church (Shady Side, MD). 

5 The legend relates to Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 10 Spruce Street, 
Middletown, PA. 

6 One reason this tradition is overlooked may be the ambiguity of the name. Despite the 
many descriptive names mentioned earlier, most of these still require the Pennsylvanian 
customer to be familiar with the tradition. An “Easter egg” could mean a hen’s egg or a 
chocolate egg. A “chocolate egg” could be mass-produced. A “peanut butter egg” 
describes the most popular variation rather than the product itself. A “candy Easter egg” 
ignores the fact these creations are made of chocolate rather than a sugar-coated candy 
shell. A “church egg” would be poor marketing as those unfamiliar might think the 
church is selling hens’ eggs, a product that many Pennsylvanians do, in fact, sell. 

7 Mary Leisey, Middletown Presbyterian egg sales director, equates this to local legends 
about Hershey factory workers (Interview, 2016). As one of the largest historical 
employers in Dauphin County, legends of life at work in the Hershey factories are 
common among residents. One story is that, told they could eat as much chocolate as 
they desired, by their third day, Hershey employees report never wanting to eat 
chocolate again. On the other hand, Jay Epler, a Geyers Church mixer, got a hankering 
and downed a chocolate egg during our interview. 



54     Johnson & Puglia, Chocolate Easter Egg, Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 

8 Sue Gleiter (2018b) also mentions the “Holy Roller” pun. “We’re the ‘holy rollers,’ 
joked Judy Schaffner, one of the volunteers, as she rolled filling for the eggs.” Variations 
of this Christian wordplay arose repeatedly in our interviews. 

9 Susie Epler (Epler et al. Interview, 2016), chair of her church’s social committee, 
emphasized that people believe this to be true but also pointed out that the belief is 
patently false. There are many events year round that provide equal opportunities for 
fellowship and camaraderie. 

10 According to Giving USA, church contributions are down 50% since 1990 (Tugend 
2008). Similarly, according to a research study by Empty Tomb, the percentage of a 
congregant’s income donated to a church has declined from 3.1% in 1968 to 2.4% in 
2010 to 2.3% in 2011 (Burgess 2013). See also “The Egg Church” 2011 for a story about 
chocolate eggs specifically as a response to declining revenue. 

11 The church’s official history reads: 

The Church began making Easter Eggs in 1970 as a fundraising project for 
the building program. When the new church building was built there was a 
debt of $145,000 in 1973. In 1983 the loan was completely paid, greatly 
assisted by the Easter Egg project which began in various homes the first 
year, moved to the parsonage basement, then to the basement of the old 
Geyers Church. The biggest year on record was 1978 when 162,000 eggs 
were make [sic] using over three tons of sugar. The Egg Project continues 
to this day. (Geyers United Methodist Church) 

12 In 2016, Presbyterian Congregation of Middletown self-reported producing 22,588 
chocolate eggs (Leisey Interview, 2016). Ebenezer self-reported making approximately 
33,000 chocolate eggs (Blaydon Interview, 2016). Seven Sorrows reported making 
64,000 chocolate eggs, intentionally overproducing to be able to donate 1,000 chocolate 
eggs to the local food bank (Fun Egg Facts, 2016). 

13 Geyers Church, for example, hopes to install an accessible restroom and an elevator 
with its chocolate egg profits (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). 

14 Most people will be familiar with the mass-produced and ubiquitous Reese’s Peanut 
Butter Egg, and it is tempting to assume that the church-made peanut butter egg is 
simply a homemade version of the commercial variety because they share ingredients, 
form, and name. Indeed, church egg production and local chocolate manufacturers have 
been connected from the beginning. In addition to distributing chocolate to churches, 
Hershey’s subsidiary, Reese’s, developed the best-known, mass-produced peanut butter 
chocolate egg, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg, in 1967 (see Liebig 2013). In that year, 
Reese’s released its new creation to a limited Pennsylvania test audience. Following 
overwhelming success, it released its peanut butter egg nationally the following year. 
Hershey published the announcement in a trade magazine in 1967. See Liebig (2013) for 
a facsimile of the original announcement. According to local legend, the “popular” 
Reese’s chocolate egg derives from the “folk” Pennsylvania chocolate Easter egg made in 



       Digest: A Journal of Foodways & Culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 55 

Pennsylvania home cooks’ kitchens for generations (Swartz, and Epler et al. Interviews, 
2016; see also Klaus 2011). Some speculate Hershey took the idea after observing the 
success of the church chocolate egg production process. Wilma Epler, one of the early 
participants of the Pennsylvania church chocolate egg tradition in Middletown, 
remembered two mysterious men visiting Geyers Church to watch her dip chocolate 
eggs. She later asked who the men were, and found out they were Reese’s employees. 
Whether they were there to check on the competition or spy on the recipe or production 
process is uncertain. Wilma does remember as they left, they said, “Well, she’s doing it 
right” (Epler et al. Interview, 2016). To the participants who we interviewed, the 
originator of the tradition is immaterial. There is no perceived competition between the 
commercial and church-made variety. Only the latter is seen as an important regional 
foodway, one that is cherished by the community, eagerly anticipated annually, and 
gleefully announced each year by local media (for example, see Sue Gleiter 2009, 2012, 
2015b, and 2018a; Klaus 2011). 


	Keywords: chocolate, egg, church fundraiser, Easter, spring customs, Pennsylvania
	Our first contact was Nancy Swartz, lifelong resident of Middletown, active local church member, and longtime consumer of chocolate eggs. She proved a gateway to contacts at other local churches that led us ultimately to work with three: Geyers United...
	Physical Manifestations
	Social Organization
	Occasion
	Strategies
	Conclusion: The Yolk of Tradition
	Scholarly Secondary Sources
	Newspaper and Online Sources
	Cookbooks and Church Materials
	Interviews



