Samantha Grasso and Ke’red Cook prepare a frozen turkey and a carton of groceries for distribution at the Jonnycake Center.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Most teenagers hold jobs that teach them to flip burgers, scoop ice cream and make change. Ke’red Cook and Megan Oldham have learned about the depth of need in their community and how human kindness begets human kindness.

Ke’red, known as KC, and Megan are heading the Jonnycake Center of Peace Dale’s Thanksgiving gift basket drive as the leaders of Teen Jonnycake, an initiative intended to get students ages 13 to 18 to volunteer. KC and Megan earn a small stipend overseeing the program and in the process are gaining a vast understanding about the world around them.

They have managed the back-to-school program, providing backpacks to needy children, and have endured a hectic few weeks organizing close to 1,000 Thanksgiving meals for area families. They have watched their group of teen volunteers grow from 6 in September to 38 last week and jell with newfound friendships and purpose.

“It’s not like we’re sitting here doing work. We’re a group,” says KC, a freshman at South Kingstown High School.

The teenagers saw the fruits of their labor emerge this week. A line of people awaiting meals snaked outside the center in the heart of the tired mill village Monday. Unemployment, divorce, disabilities and high housing costs, in particular, brought them there. Some were willing to share their stories; others looked away, their eyes filling with tears.

“It’s just hard to make it,” said Kristina Pantalone, a 21-year-old mother of two from Kingston. High fuel costs and rent make buying groceries difficult, despite her boyfriend’s salary.

“If it wasn’t for them, people wouldn’t be having Thanksgiving,” Pantalone said as 4-year-old Isaiah chattered about his love of turkey.

Hundreds of boxed meals sat stacked high inside the center, numbered according to the teenagers’ organizational system. A cheerful turkey flag hung from the ceiling as Megan and Briana Gustaitis, Teen Jonnycake board chair, coordinated the number of meals each family should get. Samantha Grasso, a South Kingstown High School senior, selected the appropriate boxes, and along with KC and others helped lug them out to cars.

“Everything’s tough,” said Catherine Petrichko, a slight mother of four hoisting a box and a frozen turkey out to the car. The family is paying $1,700 a month in rent, a sum particularly hard to make in the fall because of her husband’s slow season as a commercial fisherman.

If not for the Jonnycake Center, the family might try to cut back on gas to afford a holiday dinner, she said. “I don’t know what we’d do.”

Dozens of steps led to that point. First, the teenagers mapped out the tasks and dreamed up an ideal Thanksgiving. They held food drives, bagged vegetables, counted cans, packed items and labeled boxes. In addition to fresh potatoes and apples, many boxes included mayonnaise for turkey sandwiches and pancake mix and syrup.

“We want them to be able to have breakfast in the morning,” Megan said.

With the help of a University of Rhode Island nutrition student, the group created recipe cards to guide families in making turkey, gravy, pumpkin pie and even toasted pumpkin seeds. The cards were tied together with yarn and slipped into the boxes.

The students learned from their mistakes. At Christmas time, they will specify what foods people should donate – such as nuts, gravy and pie crust – and ask for gift certificates for turkeys and hams.

The Teen Jonnycake volunteers are doing jobs previously left to the center’s skeleton staff and a handful of helpers. The distribution ran smoothly, if not frenetically, Monday. Phones rang incessantly as the teenagers barked out orders.

“There’s no stress here for us,” Susan Gustaitis, executive director of the nonprofit Jonnycake Center, said in the days before Thanksgiving. The students were able to add touches her staff would never have had time for.

Teen Jonnycake is the brainchild of the Peace Dale Youth Initiative and is intended to get the local young people involved and invested in the community. KC, group administrator, and Megan, the coordinator, were selected through an interview process. Their salaries are paid for with a $2,000 grant from the United Way. They earn $7 an hour to work 5 hours a week, but tend to put in more time, particularly Megan, Gustaitis said.

The 35 teen volunteers they oversee come from 11 schools statewide. Though most are fulfilling community service requirements for their school or church, some, such as Samantha, plan to stay on. Until joining the group, she said she never realized how grave the needs were right outside her door. Her sense of accomplishment was mixed with sadness Monday.

KC and Megan, a South Kingstown High School sophomore, came to similar realizations. They learned that as families try to pay for heat, rent and gas, food is often the first to go.

“The people you’d least expect, they come here,” said KC, who lives in the Champagne Heights housing complex in Peace Dale. The number of meals the Jonnycake Center provides through its food pantry has risen from a total of 39,000 last year to 77,000 so far this year, said Gustaitis.

Megan, of Fournier Estates, finds comfort in the center’s work and is particularly attuned to children. She recently set aside toys for a newborn and listens intently as the center’s clients share their concerns.

“In a way. … you’re doing it because you know someone would do it for you, if you had trouble,” she says.

And, she says, she discovered she is more capable than she dreamed.

“You have to be organized and respectful. You’re giving them respect by helping them and then they’re giving you respect,” she said.

The group will have two weeks’ rest before the Christmas push begins. After that passes, the volunteers are tentatively planning a talent show as a fundraiser and a drive to provide prom dresses, tuxes and money for prom tickets for students in need.

They will also learn to write grant applications as they seek money for Teen Jonnycake, and its leaders, to continue their work.

Teen Jonnycake can be reached at (401) 789-1559, ext. 17, or at teenjonny3251@yahoo.com