KENNETT, Mo. - Beverly Alford Thomas stands outside the Harps Food Store here, carefully loading boxes of donated pastries into her aging maroon Buick sedan, continuing a mission she has followed for decades. “Just random people,” Thomas says. “I don’t care where you live, what kind of car you drive, or if you’re homeless or not. If I see you and you want something to eat, I’ll stop.” Since the 1970s, Thomas spends her time sharing kindness with strangers. That includes people walking along sidewalks, families in parking lots, workers inside local businesses and those carrying everything they own on their backs. She asks no questions and requires no sign-ups, believing that a simple act of giving is enough. “As long as I do what I know is right,” she says, “I’ve helped somebody.” Now 77 and turning 78 in July, Thomas continues her outreach from her car and home after losing the building from where she once operated a thrift store of sorts, Virgie and Leonard’s Place, at Kennett. Despite that setback, neither her calling nor her work ever slows. She travels regularly throughout the area and into Arkansas, offering food to anyone willing to accept it. “Working people need surprises and good things too,” Thomas notes. “Everybody does.” Her goal is simple: to brighten someone’s day, even if only for a moment. “I just try to put a smile on somebody’s face,” she says, smiling herself. The effort is supported by employees at Harps, including deli worker Milagros Rodriguez, who has been helping collect unsellable “legally,” but still-good food, for about six months. “I don’t like throwing away food,” Rodriguez explains. “When I found out Miss Beverly gives it all away, I wanted to help.” The donations, often consisting of bakery items, are set aside and picked up when Thomas is able, sometimes totaling several hundred dollars’ worth of food. Nakia Broadway, the deli and bakery manager at Harps, says the partnership has grown into a personal relationship over the years. “It makes me feel good,” Broadway says. “It actually makes me feel like a human being.” Store employees save items that can no longer be sold but are still safe to eat, then call Thomas when enough has accumulated, usually every week or two, Broadway explains. “If it’s going to be thrown away and there are people who can really use it, that just doesn’t make sense,” Broadway shares. “When you have somebody willing to take it directly to the people, that’s a blessing.” For Thomas, the food is only part of what she gives. She offers time, attention and compassion to people who day in and day out, may feel unseen. She doesn’t worry about who qualifies or where the food finally finds a table, only that it reaches someone who needs it in that moment. In Kennett and beyond, her quiet generosity, supported by those who believe in her mission, continues to travel far, one shared meal and one smile at a time. “This is just the right thing to do,” Thomas says. “To live is to serve. Any way we can.” More reading at bootheelbeacon.com Pictured are Beverly Thomas and Milagros Rodriguez outside Harp’s Food Store at Kennett.