Around the clock Keith Johnson checks on his creations, adding more pecan and hickory, then letting the mesquite charcoal and the smoker do the rest.
Johnson is a one man operation, making a difference in a lot of kids lives, by smoking turkeys.
For the past week, Johnson has been smoking turkeys, just outside the front door of his South Los Angeles home, and people come from all over LA, and as far as Riverside, to buy one of these tasty birds.
"You got to come and try it. I think once you try it, you'll come back and you return and return again," says Cornell Ward, Johnson's friend.
On the night before Thanksgiving, Johnson tends the smokers around the clock. He does it because he loves to cook, and he loves to help the children in his community.
What he earns by smoking and selling the birds, helps fund programs for the kids who need it the most, the ones in his own neighborhood.
"Our motto is, it's time to teach new school kids old school values. We would love to open up a classroom and tell kids to come inside and learn the values, never get to busy for God, or baby get a good education, or respect your elders at all times, but if we just did that no one would come, so we needed a magnet," said Johnson.
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Johnson's youth programs continue to expand. When he realized the obesity rate for South LA was 30%, he decided the kids needed an interactive fitness center.
One will open up in a nearby church in a few weeks.
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