HOUSTON \u2013 Help is on the way as the Houston community comes together to collect food, clothing and other essentials for Jamaica, which was hit hard by Hurricane Melissa.<\/p>\n
The historic category 5 storm made landfall six days ago, decimating everything in its path.<\/p>\n
Moved by images of the destruction and concern for loved ones, a popular social media chef is taking action to support relief efforts.<\/p>\n
Aldaine Oakley has made a name for himself as a traveling chef who shares Jamaican flavors with his social media followers. When he asked the community to help support his home island, they responded with an outpouring of donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really heartfelt, Jamaica is just my home so seeing it being damaged like I was heartbroken and we were like we have to do something,\u201d said Tiffany Douglas, who, along with many others, stopped by to drop off items.<\/p>\n
Oakley, also known as World Chef told KPRC 2 he\u2019s been paying close attention to the needs of those on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment it hit, it\u2019s like I woke up and I got a vision from God and God was like use your platform in a good way to raise some items,\u201d Oakley said.<\/p>\n
Since then, social media and his phone have been constantly buzzing.<\/p>\n
In just a few days, they have collected a room full of items.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo right here, we got some spice Jamaican seasoning, some fruit juice, canned tuna, flour, fries, corned beef because they love that in Jamaica,\u201d Oakley said.<\/p>\n
The items will be sent to the Escarpment Road New Testament Church of God in Kingston.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to school there, I went to church there, it\u2019s in my neighborhood so it means a lot to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Most of Oakley\u2019s family is still in Jamaica.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompared to what happened on the other side they weren\u2019t affected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even though his family didn\u2019t suffer great loss, Oakley knows the need is great.<\/p>\n
The items collected will be shipped out tomorrow, but Oakley says they are still taking donations.<\/p>\n
If you want to help, you can do so by dropping off items at two separate locations: <\/p>\n
The Spice Jamaica Office<\/p>\n
11115 Mills Road, Suite 128<\/p>\n
Cypress, Texas 77429<\/p>\n
Or the Houston drop-off location:<\/p>\n
Robert\u2019s Markland LLP<\/p>\n
2555 N MacGregor Way<\/p>\n
Houston, TX 77004<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Help is on the way as the Houston community comes together to collect food, clothing and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,4683,17085,17084,66,223],"class_list":["post-34191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-hurricane","tag-hurricane-melissa","tag-jamaica","tag-local","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}