The Albany County Sheriff’s Department has been cooking for three days.

“It’s busy! It’s a lot busier than we thought,” said Sheriff Craig Apple, with a laugh.

Because Equinox is not delivering this year, the sheriff took on much more.

“What bothers me the most is we’re still a void of several thousand people that haven’t called. We’re cooking 2100, 2200 meals today. Maybe by the time we’re done, we’ll be at 2300 or 2400. Watervliet gets some meals, and I know Equinox has a sit-down dinner, but where are the other 8,000 people?”

Old World Provisions and Sycso donated food. Capital City Produce loaned a huge truck. Hill & Markes provided containers.

“I’ll apologize to the Voorheesville community because I’ve bought every bit of gravy in the area and every bag of frozen vegetables!” Sheriff Apple joked. “We were running out, so I’m like, go get everything!”

Many people came to pick up bags of meals that will go out people in different communities.

“We didn’t deny anybody. We sent meals to Cambridge early this morning. We sent them out to Amsterdam, northern Saratoga, northern Greene County, all over Albany County. We just sent a load to West Sand Lake and Averill Park.”

The sheriff’s department has been cooking for three days.

This is a team that cares. It’s an operation that takes a lot of organization and hard work, but they know where these meals are going: to people who can’t afford to buy one, or can’t get out, and this will make their holiday a little bit better.

“It’s been a good day. A great team-building day. And we know we’re helping a lot of people in the capital district.”