Albany County Sheriff’s Office delivers hundreds of Thanksgiving meals

CLARKSVILLE – There was no shortage of volunteers at the Albany County Sheriff’s annual Thanksgiving meal operation.

They started cooking early Tuesday morning and more people joined in to arrange the meals and pack them up.

“This is awesome, so I reached out to Old World Provisions, they give us the turkey every year, and Sysco I reach out to for all the fixings, and they’re kind enough to donate enough for hundreds of meals,” said Sheriff Craig Apple. “And then we all have to get some extras every now and then.”

This is the third time they’ve done this. The first time was for some 300 people. Now that number has more than doubled, probably close to 700, and they get the meals out any way they can.

“You may see an ambulance delivering meals, you may see a sheriff’s car delivering meals, or somebody in their personal car,” said the sheriff. “Some go directly to houses, some go to senior centers, some go to retirement communities, and some go to churches, like we have a batch of 100 going to one church in Albany.”

Christmas music was playing, and the enthusiasm was contagious. More and more people showed up to pitch in.

They started doing this annual event during the pandemic, and they keep doing it to make sure they reach people who might otherwise go without.

Apple says the need is greater than you might think.

“And now of course with inflation the way it is, a lot of people can’t even go out and afford a Thanksgiving dinner, so we’re super happy to be able to help out, and it’s awesome to see the people get their meals, and they say thank you so much,” he said. “It’s just what we try to do to build bridges in our community.”