All In The Family: Ohana Grill, TR South Students Feed Needy For Thanksgiving

“I’ll take two.”

James Costello gave the student a quizzical look, then handed her a second foil-covered pan.

“Be careful, they’re kind of heavy,” he said, as the girl turned to make her way out of the cooler to carry the cooked turkeys back across Route 35 to the Ohana Grill. “Are you sure you’ve got them?” he said, as she nodded.

The turkeys were precious cargo -- two of 37 that Costello and his staff at Ohana Grill in Lavallette had cooked in the days prior, part of dinners for needy families who are part of the Toms River High School South community. The dinners were purchased by the Toms River South National Honor Society through fundraising.

The Thanksgiving dinners have been a project of the Toms River South National Honor Society for 20 years, said Mary Highton, a math teacher at South and the National Honor Society adviser. Part of that tradition involves the seniors in the National Honor Society delivering the meals.

In past years, that meant picking everything up at the Foodtown in the Toms River Shopping Center, Highton said. But this year, with Foodtown out of business, the group was forced to find another source for the meals.

“Other places wanted way more” than the $47 per meal that Foodtown had charged the National Honor Society for years, she said.

That’s where the Ohana Grill stepped in.

“The year before Dana (Costello, a business and technology teacher at Toms River South) had asked me if we needed any help,” Highton said. So this year, she went to her co-worker and asked whether the restaurant that Dana and James Costello own could handle the load. The Costellos said yes and matched the price Foodtown had charged them previously, Highton said.

While the students worked on fundraising, selling candles and “Gobblegrams,” which are greetings that students and staff could purchase for $2 apiece to be delivered to others within Toms River South, James Costello and his staff, including John Higgins, figured out the logistics of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for what Highton estimates is 300 people. Costello enlisted the help of the owners of Lavallette Liquors, which sits across Route 35 from the Ohana Grill, to use their refrigerator to store the turkeys after they were cooked.

“It takes organization,” Costello said, but he said it was easier to accommodate because the restaurant is only open three days a week this time of year -- Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

“It is so much easier in a commercial kitchen. And it makes all the difference having a dish guy,” he said.

They thawed the turkeys in coolers and brined them, then cooked them 10 at a time in the restaurant’s ovens, Higgins said.

The rest of the meal included mashed potatoes (110 pounds of them), stuffing (four hotel-sized pans), cranberry sauce (72 pounds) plus gravy, mixed vegetables, a dozen rolls per meal and freshly baked apple pie.

The pies -- as well a bread pudding the crew is making for a different project -- took 50 pounds of apples. That could have been tedious work, having to peel all of them, until one of the staff members came up with the idea to use a power drill.

The drill bit was washed and sanitized, and then put into the stem of the apple. Then the person peeling the apples needed only to run the drill with a peeler against the apple to remove the skin, Costello said.

The Costellos, who opened the restaurant five years ago, said getting involved with the National Honor Society project was important, Dana said, “because I teach here. These people (being helped are part of the South family.”

Kevin Amici of Beachwood, a South senior and president of the National Honor Society, said the project means a lot to the students as well.

“It’s nice to be able to help families that need it,” he said.

“Especially since we see them every day in school,” said Sam Allen, also of Beachwood, who was the top fundraiser, selling 35 candles and raising $250 toward the cause.

Highton said the families chosen to receive the dinners are all Toms River South students, and were identified by the school’s child study team, guidance counselors or even the school nurse, who sometimes sees students and realizes that there’s something more going on at home.

The National Honor Society members -- who loaded up the meals at the Ohana Grill and then got on the school bus to help make the deliveries -- are expressly told to respect the privacy of their peers who are receiving the meals, to prevent embarrassment. Only seniors participate in the deliveries, Highton said, an event she missed when she was a senior 15 years ago.

“I think I had a calculus test that day,” she said.

In addition to the candles, the group sold 275 Gobblegrams, Highton said, and raised $1,800 total.

“We wanted to help every kid” who needed it, Amici said.

(Photos: Students carrying the turkeys and at the Ohana Grill. The Costellos’ daughters, Grayson, 2, and Addison, 4, “helped” both Mary Highton (dark hair) and their mom, Dana, carry the food to the bus to be loaded and delivered. by Karen Wall; Students assembling Gobblegrams, by Mary Highton)