VIDALIA — Lunch at the Concordia Council on Aging site just wouldn’t be the same without Jerry Bell.

“He’s just a blessing in this place,” Vidalia resident Anita Jovel said. “He’s always here when I come in, and he brightens my day.”

Jovel has been eating at the lunch site for at least a decade, and can’t remember a time when Bell, who is mentally disabled, didn’t help cheer her up.

“He’s always so happy, no matter what,” Jovel said. “He’ll always visit and talk with everybody.”

The Concordia Council on Aging is a non-profit set up to serve the elderly, ages 60 and older, by providing food, activities and health services for Concordia Parish residents.

Meal sites for the organization include the Vidalia meal site on Texas Street, where Bell arrives at 9:50 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Bell, 55, doesn’t waste time before leaping into his morning routine of setting out salt and peppershakers, as well as plastic utensils at each of the tables at the site.

It’s a routine Bell has mastered since Marjorie Bowman, director of the lunch site, arrived nearly 15 years ago.

“It keeps him busy and gives him something to do, but it’s even better because everyone just loves him so much here,” Bowman said. “He’s really opened up over the years, and everyone is so proud of him.”

In the early years, Bowman said Bell would often keep to himself, get the job done and be ready to leave with Mary Williams, a certified nursing assistance and his caretaker.

But over the years, Bell has embraced Bowman, her staff and the residents, who come in to eat lunch.

“He was very bashful when he first started coming,” Bowman said. “Now, he’s gotten very relaxed and will talk with the people coming in and even knows some of their names by heart.”

If Bell is having a particularly good day, Bowman said he’ll even give her a personalized goodbye on his way out.

“Sometimes he’ll say, ‘I’ll see you later, Marjorie,’” Bowman said. “That always makes my day.”

Williams said Bell has other routines also.

“If it’s raining, we don’t come,” she said, looking over at Bell for an agreeable response. “We don’t like to go out in the rain, and Tuesday is always his off day.”

After his duties at the feeding site finish, Williams said the two often head to the Natchez Mall to walk around or watch Bell’s favorite television show.

But the more time Bell spends outside of the feeding site is more time Bowman misses her best volunteer and hardest worker.

“He’s very much an asset to this place,” Bowman said. “When he doesn’t come in, everyone is asking where he is and when he’s coming back.

“We couldn’t make it without him.”