For Ann Marie Harvey-Phillips life starts with gratitude

It’s just past noon on a cool Saturday afternoon, and on the patio of her brightly painted home in Denham Town, Kingston, Ann Marie Harvey-Phillips is busy. Soon she will be hosting a few of her neighbours to supply them with food packages. This is her calling, she said, and with donations she musters from friends and The Best Dressed Chicken, it’s a calling that she embraces with energetic devotion.

“I’m grateful to God for life, family, good health and strength and the ability to help others,” said Harvey-Phillips.

Harvey-Phillips’ giving spirit started when she lived in the United States and would occasionally ship food and personal items to needy people in her community. When she returned to live in Jamaica, her drive to help was amplified. “You know who needs help. You will notice the child who was not going out to school; the man who was not going out to work. If you open your eyes, you will see where you are needed,” said Harvey-Phillips.

DIFFICULTY CONTINUING DUE TO COVID

In 2018 she started a soup kitchen, cooking with her own hands the food she solicited herself. But the pandemic made it difficult to continue this service to the community.

“My mom is 96 years old, so I had to consider her safety and not have people come to the house for food. Add to that, donations evaporated as most businesses and people were dealing with the crisis in their way, and that was looking after their own first.”

Undaunted, Harvey-Phillips has continued to find ways to support her neighbours by inspiring others to act. Friends overseas are urged to send what they can, and committed volunteers like Marlene Walker-Wilson and May Ann Jo work on packaging and distributing the donations each week.

There is a quiet knock on Harvey-Phillips’ whimsically decorated gate, and soon enough, this week’s beneficiaries begin to shuffle in. First, in comes an older man who manages a spry greeting. Then, under the shade of a custard apple tree, one by one, Harvey-Phillips’ neighbours file in to await the food packages she has assembled. For some, this is their best hope for a meal, but instead of being shrouded in despair, their faces radiate a quiet hope which is testimony of the warmth with which Harvey-Phillips welcomes them.

Before she begins the distribution, she bows her head to pray. “My first act in the morning is to give God thanks for a new day, one that is filled with love and opportunity,” said Harvey-Phillips. I give thanks even for the minor things, because the pandemic has taught me to be more grateful than ever before.”