Stale food warning
Kingston’s mayor urges meal donations to the homeless to be filtered through night shelter
Published:Monday | October 13, 2025 | 12:07 AMCorey Robinson/Senior Staff Reporter
Mayor of Kingston and St Andrew Andrew Swaby is urging people with food, intended to be given to the homeless in the nation’s capital, to channel such donations through the Marie Atkins Night Shelter, citing reports of people donating meals unfit for consumption to individuals living on the streets.
“I’m asking people to come to 65 Hanover Street if they have any food to give to the homeless population. We welcome and appreciate your help, but we have a duty of care,” said Swaby, citing situations where people are taking leftover food from parties to the homeless, which in many cases is unsuitable.
“Sometimes the food is there and it gets stale, and so they take it on the street to feed these people. That cannot be. Not because these people are not in a position to help themselves, it means that we are going to give them any and every type of food,” said Swaby.
“Additionally, if you give them the food through our facilities, we will ensure that the garbage is properly disposed of,” he continued, alluding to the littering of the roadways which often follows the donation and consumption of such foods.
Swaby was speaking during a ceremony last Thursday to mark World Homeless and World Mental Health Day at St William Grant Park in Kingston. The initiative was a partnership between the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) and the Ministry of Health and Wellness. It aimed to raise awareness and connect vulnerable residents with support and resources, and afforded the homeless free medical, dental, mental support, as well as employment and banking opportunities.
In the meantime, Swaby, citing the inhumane abandonment of elderly people at places of shelter by their relatives, said Jamaicans should remember they have a duty to take care of their elderly loved ones, some of whom have been left at places of safety without visits or communication for extended periods.
“It is your duty to take care of your family. When you are a child, your mother takes care of you, and now when your parents can’t help themselves, we have a duty to take care of them. Every day when I see these things I wish my mother were alive to continue to show her the love and treat her how she should be treated.”
Police support
He said that, in addition to providing daily, well-needed services, the KSAMC has been partnering with the police in the capital city to safeguard the less-fortunate. This, even as they battle the scourge of crime in the island’s main commercial district.
“Even though they have been dealing with the whole issue of crime, the police have come out and they have shown their support for us, they have assisted the municipality, and we want to thank them fully as we continue to work together.”
In the meantime, Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, and member of parliament for West Kingston, said the Government would be taking action against people who abandon their relatives on the city’s streets, leaving them for state and other agencies to deal with them.
At the same time he promised a survey on Jamaica’s homeless situation which will, among other things, inform the erection of 14 places of shelter in partnership with the National Housing Trust, one in each parish, to help mitigate the proliferation of homeless people across the island.
“We can build more Desmond McKenzie Transitional Shelters. We can build more night shelters, [but] we have to start now to build a culture of personal responsibility where people take responsibility for their loved ones, and don’t leave them on the streets for the Government and others to struggle,” he said. “It is sad that a lot of the people on the streets have good families, steady homes, but, because circumstances might not allow the family to accept and appreciate them, they turn them out on the streets.”
“The Government is going to be moving effectively to take action against those who continue to abandon their families,” he said, to applause from people who turned out for the function last weekend.
“In our public hospitals, there are over 500 or more social cases where people take their relatives to the hospital and abandon them there. You have families who leave their loved ones at the hospital and go off on a cruise, spend weekends, and have big parties ... While this Government is committed and doing a lot, it cannot be for the Government and private sector alone to give support when people abandon their families.”