SAN ANTONIO – A restaurant on the North Side has received an outpouring of donations to support those impacted by Hurricane Melissa. On Thursday, the team at Real Real Jamaica started loading up those donations of essentials to ship directly overseas.
Jodi-Ann Crombie, one of the owners of Real Real Jamaica, has been collecting donations to support relief efforts after Hurricane Melissa hit the Caribbean island on Oct. 28. Damages were estimated at around $10 billion.
“I’m still in awe,” Crombie said. “How is it possible that we can wake up one morning, everything looks lush and green, and within a couple of days, it looks like a desert?”
Crombie’s nonprofit, Jamaican Renaissance Initiative, teamed up with Partners for Youth Foundation, based in Florida, to send the donations to Jamaica.
WATCH BELOW: San Antonio Jamaican restaurant leads relief efforts for Hurricane Melissa
“It’s a process that, behind closed doors, a team of us have been working on and trying to figure it out‚” Crombie said. “(I’m) grateful. The support from the people here has been tremendous.”
Crombie said her parents and grandmother were found alive in Jamaica after the raging storm devastated their homes.
“I’m soaking it all in,” Crombie said. “There is nothing we can do. It happened already. We have to pick up the pieces.”
This is just the beginning for relief — Crombie said she has more events coming.
“I’m a true Jamaican at heart; born and raised, so nothing else matters to me than seeing smiling people’s faces in Jamaica,” Crombie said.
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