MAY PEN, Clarendon — It’s been years since Selvin, who lives on the streets of May Pen, has been inside a supermarket. So, when g ood Samaritan Stephen Liao took him to his family’s National Self-Serve Wholesale and told him to shop, Selvin didn’t know where to begin.

“Is long time since I go into a supermarket to buy food, because I don’t have money. I see so much food that mi no know what fi pick up,” he said.

He eventually helped himself to dried food items, canned meats, Lasco milk powder, and cereal.

Selvin was just one of the town’s less fortunate who benefited from Liao’s act of kindness, borne out of a new approach to life after the businessman’s bout with COVID-19.

“I… could have died but was spared and so I am happy to be able to push the trolley in the supermarket and assist them to pick up food items. It’s a great feeling. I could have been a statistic but God has spared my life, so I am more than happy to be able to help in my own small way. It’s a pleasure for me to give to the shut-ins, and the homeless, and to be honest I’m excited to assist. While I was out due to my illness, I had some time to reflect on life and I realise we are so fragile and in the blink of an eye we could be gone,” Liao shared with the Jamaica Observer.

“I know the municipal corporation, service clubs, and other agencies have been assisting the homeless and shut-ins with food but this one is a little different. The meals we provided are not the regular cooked meals that they are used to; instead, we decided to treat them to KFC. For many persons it’s nothing, but for these persons on the road it’s a luxury,” he stated, noting that canned food, juices, toiletries, and water were packaged and delivered to shut-ins along with the KFC.

He decided on the popular fast food meal, he explained, after a conversation with a homeless man. The man, who often hangs around the plaza where KFC is located, had eaten leftover fries dumped by a customer and longed to have a meal for himself.

“Sometimes, even us who can afford food feel for something different other than the usual cooked meals, and so I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do this for them,” he said.

Working with KFC, Liao delivered meals to about 50 shut-ins in Effortville, Bucknor, and other areas close to the town.

He was spurred into action after noticing that the number of homeless people wandering the streets of May Pen had steadily increased over time. This, he said, was linked to the strain the novel coronavirus pandemic has put on the resources of churches and other agencies that used to cater to the needy. When the Clarendon-based charity organisation, the James and Friends Education Programme (JFEP), briefed him on the extent of the problem, Liao decided this was just the opportunity he had been looking for after surviving COVID-19.

“Some of us are very fortunate and so we take for granted simple things like being able to afford our basic needs and wants, while others who, for whatever reasons, may have fallen on hard times and find it extremely difficult to provide for themselves,” he said.

His family has been doing good deeds for years. Though it is not something they often speak about publicly, Liao and his wife Anna help with school fees and books, among other acts of kindness.

For those like Selvin, whose lives Stephen Liao has touched through his most recent good deed, there is heartfelt gratitude.

“I want to say thanks to Mr James for carrying me in his van to go shop and Mr Stephen for the food. I glad for it,” Selvin said happily, his bag of groceries securely in his grip.