ORLANDO, Fla. — As Jamaica begins recovering from Hurricane Melissa, Central Florida’s Jamaican community is mobilizing support by filling barrels and shipping containers with food, water and necessities to families back home.
What You Need To Know
Central Florida groups are collecting donations for Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa
Lara Shipping has already sent multiple containers with relief supplies
Caribbean Sunshine Bakery gathered pallets of water, food, baby items and toiletries
Families are also shipping barrels directly to loved ones on the island
Local residents and businesses began collecting items immediately after the Category 5 storm devastated the island. Supplies, including water, diapers, canned food, toiletries, clothes and generators, are now being packed and shipped from Orlando.
Inside Lara Shipping, an Orlando freight company, barrels and boxes line the warehouse floor as workers prepare multiple shipments to Jamaica.
“As the world has seen, Jamaica got devastated by Hurricane Melissa. There’s a lot of people that have no home, no food, no clothes, nothing. So Orlando has really showed up. Kudos to Orlando,” said Michelle Mohomed, owner of Lara Shipping.
Mohomed says the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the storm, with donations coming from longtime customers and first-time donors.
“Jamaicans and non-Jamaicans. Thank you to everybody who’s donated,” she said.
To meet demand, she has extended business hours and accepted shipments ordered online directly to the warehouse. Families shipping goods to relatives in impacted areas are encouraged to label boxes so staff can tag and route items correctly.
“We’ve already taken a full container to Montego Bay on Tuesday. We did one for Kingston yesterday and another one for Kingston right after that,” she said.
At Caribbean Sunshine Bakery, staff began collecting items as soon as the storm hit, using barrels, boxes, and later an entire back room to store donations.
“We started this as soon as we heard it was a category five and where it was headed,” said Peter Daley, owner of Caribbean Sunshine Bakery. “By the third day, gifts started pouring in. We have everything from baby diapers, toiletries, canned goods, and almost six and a half pallets of water to send down.”
Once full, supplies from the bakery and other locations are transported to Lara Shipping, where they are loaded into containers and sent to Jamaica.
Customers say they trust the company to get items where they need to go.
Mohomed says the relief efforts are personal, and deeply rooted in the community.
“We’re like family here,” she said.
Shipments are expected to continue through the week and into next, with many families planning to send more supplies as recovery continues.