vidalia &8212; The Concordia Parish Sheriff&8217;s Office helped senior residents get their Christmas off to a good start, delivering more than 400 turkey dinners Sunday morning.

Aside from being a nice thing to do, delivering the meals is an essential service to the elderly community.

Many elderly people in the parish depend on Meals on Wheels to deliver them hot, nutritious food on a daily basis.

But even Meals on Wheels deserves at least one day off, so Sheriff Randy Maxwell and volunteers from his department prepare and deliver the holiday meal.

&8220;These folks depend on Meals on Wheels and their churches,&8221; he said. &8220;We feel like it&8217;s an opportunity for us to help out.&8221;

Helping out is no small labor.

Volunteer inmates began work late Christmas Eve and spend the night preparing turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, green beans and rolls &8212; and of course cranberry sauce &8212; for the morning delivery.

&8220;It&8217;s a privilege and it&8217;s an honor to do it for this cause,&8221; head chef Johnny Smith said.

The Baton Rouge native said helping others helped take his mind off of how much he missed his family.

Maxwell and his volunteers, members of his department and the community &8212; including Ferriday Police Chief Robert Davis &8212; arrived just after 8 a.m. to assemble the meals and ship them out.

As they entered, each was checked off of the list and given their assignment by Carolyn Radcliff, a dispatcher at the Monterey substation and longtime volunteer.

&8220;My husband (Deputy Billy Radcliff) and I volunteer every year,&8221; she said. &8220;These are people who don&8217;t have family and can&8217;t get out and fix dinner for themselves.

&8220;The sheriff does so much for us, so we volunteer to help him out.&8221;

As the meals were prepared, boxes were loaded into deputies&8217; cars for delivery all to Vidalia, Ferriday, Wildsville, Monterey, Clayton and all points everywhere in Concordia Parish.

The first stop for Marjorie Bowman was the Vidalia home of Emila Bradley.

Bradley smiled when she opened the door and thanked Bowman for the meal and wished her a merry Christmas.

It was quick, but the cold wind was blowing and Bowman, who works for the Concordia Parish Council on Aging, had 29 more stops to make before settling down to her own Christmas dinner.

Maxwell said Bowman and the other volunteers who took time out of their holiday to help others made it possible.

&8220;I deeply appreciate what they do,&8221; he said. &8220;Without them, it wouldn&8217;t be possible.&8221;