The Freshman Leadership Program Thanksgiving Benefit Dinner needs 100 pounds of potatoes, 80 cans of corn, 50 loaves of bread, 120 pounds of turkey and 10 gallons of gravy. Steven Michael Kelly has a passion for cooking that comes from years of experience, and up to 75 people have attended the Thanksgiving dinner table.

It’s a match made in heaven.

Kelly, Business junior, offers his time and knowledge to feed approximately 140 people at what has become an annual tradition, his Thanksgiving Benefit Dinner for Precious Memories Daycare.

The dinner is Saturday at 6 p.m. in Lower St. John’s, and months of preparation have ensured everyone will get their fill of all their favorite holiday staples. It is put on by the Freshman Leadership Program, of which Kelly is the long-term project executive.

An annual Thanksgiving dinner has always been a part of FLP to build community, but after Kelly became involved with the daycare on 25th and Leavenworth streets, he took over the cooking and decided to make it a benefit to raise money for some new, much-needed lunch tables.

Up to 90 children are under the loving care of Grandma Verna and Angie Bessey, whose motto is to never turn away a child, regardless of disability or mental ability.

From 50 people and a few hundred dollars, Kelly took the idea to the Cortina program, cooking five turkeys in the McGloin ovens, and moved to Lower St. John’s.

It was a success, and in the third year they hope to sell 140 tickets and raise $1400 dollars. The majority of food is donated from local grocery stores and restaurants, including the pies, the only non-homemade item at the dinner.

Kelly and his roommate, Nick Wininger, Arts & Sciences junior, have a unique plan in mind for this year’s proceeds.

“We said, let’s try and by the time we graduate, get them a van. In between then and now, we’ve been building an account at Creighton Federal up, with the goal of buying them a van,” Kelly said.

They have also held a spring dinner to raise money.

On the menu will be all the home-cooked favorites: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, green beans, rolls, cranberries and pie. The turkeys are cooked the day before, flash frozen and then slow-cooked the rest of the day on Saturday. Fortunately, with more people expected, cooking will take place in the Jesuit kitchen instead of a dormitory.

Kelly has had a passion for cooking since he was old enough to peek over the countertops. He had a catering business out of his home while in high school called Delectable Desserts.

“I come from a pretty big family, so naturally my grandma has taught me both cooking quantity, but cooking really good in quality. I make all the food from scratch,” Kelly said.

But Kelly doesn’t only cook for special occasions. He is usually whipping up dinner five nights of the week in his Opus room, to the delight of his roommates.

Katie Hart, Arts & Sciences freshman, is on the Freshman Leadership Program Service Committee and has been helping Kelly with the benefit.

“He made us a full-fledged meal that’s probably the best I’ve had since I got to Creighton. Lemon herb chicken, potatoes, rolls, salad and cookies,” Hart said. It was just a meeting to start planning, but Kelly put on a dinner for his committee of 13.

Arts & Sciences freshman and fellow FLP service committee member Kathleen McGlynn enthusiastically agrees.

“I’d recommend the Thanksgiving dinner if he had anything to do with it,” she said.

Kelly’s specialty is Italian, especially pasta and desserts. As a freshman, the intoxicating smell of freshly baked cookies, brownies and cake came out of his ninth floor room on a regular basis, which he admits made making friends pretty easy.

Coming to Creighton, Kelly was nervous because he knew he couldn’t bring an oven into his Kiewit dorm room.

So he researched and found a compromise. A convection oven is an oven that looks like a microwave but can switch to an oven so he could bake. The convection oven has traveled with him all three years.

“He has a really positive attitude all the time,” Hart said. “He has the goal of raising the most money he can for Precious Memories. It’s at the forefront of his mind.

“He’s relentless about it, and it’s really going to pay off.”

“When I’ve put my passion into something that’s so great and for such a great cause, that’s when it becomes something that I really love to do,” Kelly said.