LAPLACE — St. John the Baptist Parish residents can take the work out of preparing Thanksgiving dinner and support charitable causes by purchasing a fried turkey from the Knights of Columbus Ascension of Our Lord Council.

Fried turkeys, $40 each, come wrapped in aluminum foil on a serving tray and include instructions on how to heat up the meal on Thanksgiving Day, according to Grand Knight Mike Abbate.

The deadline to order is Monday, and turkeys will be prepared and ready for pick-up from 2 to 5 p.m. Nov. 21 in front of Ascension of Our Lord Church.

Turkeys vary in size from 10 to 12 pounds, according to Abbate.

Order forms are available at aolparish.org and should be returned to the AOL Parish Office at 799 Fairway Drive in LaPlace.

Each turkey sale raises $40 to give back to the community, whether through disaster relief, youth outreach or services for the elderly or disabled.

In some cases, outreach expands far beyond St. John the Baptist Parish.

“We just got back on Monday from Florida, cooking for the families affected by Hurricane Michael,” Abbate said.

“We cooked around 500 hot meals Saturday at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Quincy, Fla. We cooked again Sunday at St. Dominick’s Catholic Church in Panama City, and the six of us probably cooked over 1,000 meals that day.”

The AOL Knights of Columbus was recognized as the No. 1 Council in Louisiana for two consecutive years and five of the past six years.

This year, the group also received awards for Hurricane Harvey outreach in 2017 and for repairing softball fields at Ascension of Our Lord School.

According to Abbate, the group also works with St. John ARC and Special Olympics in addition to cooking meals each Thursday to deliver to elderly residents confined indoors.

“We don’t keep any of the money we get,” Abbate said. “It all goes to the community.”

For more information, call Abbate at 504-388-2452.