UPDATE: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - For Catholics, Fat Tuesday is a time to stock up on sweets.

“Today is fat Tuesday which means you're overloading on calories to get ready to fast on Ash Wednesday," says John Dann, nephew of the owner of Roma Bakery in Lansing.

“Right now we're preparing paczkis for the customers and we've been doing it for about a week now we don't start a month before because we figure we want your paczki to be fresh and delicious,” said Dann. “In observance of the faith the Roman Catholics will fast for 40 days until Easter which is the Lenten Season and paczkis are kind of the beginning step of that overload of calories.”

And for bakeries, that means making a generous amount of the high calorie treat.

“Last year our packzis were between 7000 or 8000 dozen,” says Mena Castriciano, owner of Roma Bakery.

The family owned bakery anticipates the high numbers when orders come in early.

“Orders were placed weeks in advance, sometimes a year in advance,” says Dann.

And with the Holiday orders in the thousands, they call in for some extra help.

“Today we have a lot of family, my sister, my brother, my nieces and nephews all came for us," says Castriciano.

“Right now we've got all hands on deck we've got 10 back here on the production crew and probably 12 out there getting them out to the general public,” says Dann.

But paczkis aren't exclusive to Catholics.

“Even though a lot of people aren't Catholic they love paczki anyway, usually we have until Saturday when it's going sometimes Friday it's gone,” says Castriciano.

ORIGINAL STORY: MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Bakeries are in full force expecting customers on Fat Tuesday