One of the most impressive things about the Duchess of Sussex is that her charitable partners in the UK are still happy to be associated with her, even though she hasn’t been to Isla de Saltines since early March 2020. While Meghan was forced to “give up” the royal patronages “given” to her by Buckingham Palace, she still maintains her associations with SmartWorks, Mayhew and, of course, the Grenfell women. When she first met the victims of the Grenfell fire, she saw an area where she could provide some assistance: the Hubb Community Kitchen, where the Grenfell community could cook together in a safe, accessible kitchen. Meghan organized the Together cookbook, which raised millions for Hubb. Meghan made a number of private and public visits with the Grenfell women, and even now that Meghan is in Montecito, she’s still keeping up with her friends:
The Duchess of Sussex has praised the “incredible” achievements of the women who created the Hubb community kitchen in west London following the Grenfell fire disaster. In a phone call from her California home on Wednesday, Meghan chatted to women gathered for a celebratory lunch at the Al-Manaar centre in north Kensington, not far from the tower.
In her call, she said: “We founded Hubb together and I think what I’m most proud of is what you’ve all been able to do, not just what we created to meet an immediate need right after the fire. If you go back to where it all began you just didn’t have a place to cook and people forget that’s what it came down to, needing the resources to do what you do so well — as we all know because we can taste it. But also to do it together and how…the cookbook ended up having the impact we wanted because it raised enough to get you all the help in the kitchen you needed.”
The duchess, who has made a series of visits to the community kitchen, added: “But beyond that, what you turned it into as a group and individually is incredible, you’ve just continued to take care of everyone in the community. If you think how many thousands of people have been affected by your recipes and by your love and what you’ve done to take care of frontline workers and families during Covid and children and after school groups and women in hospital and new mums…”
The luncheon was to mark the achievements of the women who have launched their own projects since the creation of the cookbook. The women continue to cook and provide for their community via varied projects and initiatives to benefit the homeless, refugees, women fleeing violence, families in need, new mothers, isolated and elderly women, frontline health workers and rehabilitated ex-offenders. The kitchen will remain open to the women for charitable purposes as they move forward with their own projects.
One of the Hubb volunteers, Chérine Mallah, told the Standard: “It was lovely to have our work celebrated by Meghan. We were really happy to hear from the duchess. It was just incredible. It really encourages us to continue in what we have been doing and makes us feel quite proud of the work we have done and the projects we have been running. It is quite impressive really to have the support from Meghan. For us, it is just our normal lives. It is massive for us. The next days of our lives are just the same but we know that someone as famous as Meghan is backing us. It is really lovely.”
To think about what could have been, if only the bitter, nasty old farts had just let Meghan exist and thrive. There could have been a second cookbook. There could have been even more empowerment for the Grenfell survivors. Meghan could have helped them found even more charities and initiatives. All of this because Moose Knuckle and Wiglet were so jealous, they couldn’t even see straight.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and WENN.
If you are a charity, who do you want as your patron? Someone who might show up once every 8 years and go mumble mumble, a la Cathy Cambridge, or someone who partners with you actively, raises money on your behalf, works to help you meet your goals, a la Meghan?
Meghan made the other royals look bad, so she had to go. But she’s still making them look bad! The more the Sussexes thrive, the more ridiculous the royals will look.
They need to take the L and start making nice with the Sussexes. Too bad they’re too stupid and petty and racist to realize it.
Exactly!! I also think she realized that very little of the money raised ever went to the charities and she didn’t play that.
What a nice, straightforward article – no Meghan-bashing and a focus on the charity itself. The DM, I think it was, said something like “Meghan calls from her $14 million home.”
So sad to think what might have been with H&M – especially now that the Queen is stepping back – well, maybe only sad for the RF.
The evening standard’s charity partner, the Felix project, also supports the Hubb Kitchen, which is mentioned towards the end of the article. This was such a good project. I can’t imagine the forces behind the scenes that were trying to prevent it from even happening.
@Jais: According to the Royal Foundation annual report, the funds from the cookbook now go to the Felix Project to assist the Hubb Kitchen.
It would have shown that the palace was ready to enter a more modern and inclusive phase. Instead, we got a rehash of the culture wars taking place in several countries across the world.
Anyways, it’s for the best. I love this relationship between the Hubb Kitchen women and Meghan. There’s true compassion and genuine concern on both sides. It’s not a “saviour approach” type of charity, but more of friends/community helping each other and paying the kindness forward.
I would LOVE to see a pro-Republic paper (is there one??) put out a headline: “Prince William and Catherine do a 3 minute Zoom call from ONE of their £–M TAXPAYER funded mansions to say how keen they are that the charity managed to stay afloat without ANY help/fundraising from their Patrons on Paper.”
I would even buy a few subscriptions to support that paper, and I’m not British!
@Jan90067
I am a US citizen and I completely agree with you that I would purchase a subscription to the British paper that actually had/has the balls to call out the Lamebridges accurately like that.
This just warms my heart so much. And it’s wonderful to see that they’re not deterred by the efforts of the BM to tarnish Meghan’s reputation. They met her personally, they’ve had conversations with her and I’m sure her genuine willingness to help and in fact her overall genuine nature made them more than happy to have her as their patron. And not only that, to continue to have her as a patron and publicise the fact that she still communicates with them.
I *highly* recommend the You’re Wrong About podcast’s 5 part Diana series. They really hit over and over on how the blood members of the BRF seem to have no idea what their actual job is (being celebrities), so when someone like Diana (and later Meghan) comes along and does understand the job and therefor does it better, the RF gets their feelings hurt and try to keep that person down.
@Stripe: The Royal Family did not approve of Diana’s work with AIDS patients because they felt it was beneath her and I have no doubt that they felt the same why about Meghan working with the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen.
Oh for sure. There can always be layers to the nastiness. But they don’t just talk about her AIDS work, the point comes up often in terms of Diana’s overall popularity and the RFs reaction to it – and the parallels are obviously there when it comes to Meghan’s star power.
I just started listening to this yesterday and it is deeply depressing to see how little they changed after Diana.
I love You’re Wrong About. Off to listen …
Counting down, 3,2,1, before there’s a headline about her consorting with terrorists again
That would be great fodder for accusations of racism, so probably not–I also think that the royals will try to bury that original Tominey story. “No racists here, not a one!”
But, don’t you all know the truth? The Royals are our “natural superiors”. No one is higher than them because God made them Royals!!! So, anyone else is just “less than” and should know their lanes and stay humble and less than. This is how the Royal/Aristocratic system works.
Meghan also gave the ladies bouquets of flowers, there is a picture of them posing with them.
Everything happens for a reason, the Windsors running out Harry and Meghan is allowing them to thrive and be be productive.
Moose knuckle Kaiser? I am dead. That’s hilarious.
I am beyond proud of her and she isn’t my child. Doria must thank god everyday that her daughter made it out alive. Harry has got to be the proudest happiest husband out there. His wife gets shit done.
It must mean the world to her that these ladies stand so proudly beside her.
I was looking at her pictures yesterday from reading her book to the children and then seeing her face in New York. I think that being so exposed in public away from her home after being away for so long and right when the British media was out to do her in, I feel like she was scared. But only because she didn’t know how people would receive her, so when they got that round of applause at Vax live, I thought she looked to me like she wanted to cry and say thank you, thank you for believing in me and believing me and not standing here and judging me and attacking me for breathing.
So I think now that she knows that Normal people actually love and respect her, she will be a bit less guarded when she ventures out again because she got through the first time and people showed her that there is absolutely nothing wrong with her just being her. Kind and sweet .
I look forward to seeing so much more of her. Meghan, I forever am in your corner. Keep doing you .
Yes that first meeting in NY she seemed cautious/vulnerable which makes sense considering what she been through. I hate to be a body language expert or anything..
But I can imagine hearing the cheers and feeling the love when they stepped outside the World Trade Center assured her of the support. They seemed more relaxed after.
I think even as a supporter if you stay online constantly reading the negativity of derangers, negative headlines or comments from haters it can feel overwhelming and like we’re outnumbered when that’s not reality at all. There’s so much support for them out there.
I pray she continues to know and feel the love and that both Harry, Meghan, and their team are able to protect themselves from the small but sometimes loud voices of negativity.
And I hope eventually positive articles about them would create more “revenue” than click bait and hate. I’m tired of the economy of hate.
I’m legit cheering so hard for these two like they are my own family lol.
Absolutely , I want nothing but the best for them .
This is such a nice, happy story😊👍🏻
I love the fact that Meghan’s charities in the UK are still working together with her, and thriving.
Meghan has the human touch that is so lacking in the Windsors, Harry excepted. But they can’t have a biracial American outdoing the blood Windsors at royalling.
+1
What I love about the Together cookbook is that as well as ensuring the kitchen could open 7 days a week, it helped the volunteers get certain training & some have started businesses. They expanded their services to help new mums & Harry linked them up with a charity he worked with loads to deliver vulnerable Londoners with food during the pandemic. Meghan has also donated the some proceeds to similar charitable orgs so it’s had quite the impact.
One of the Hubb volunteers said they never guessed Meghan was going through some things during her time in U.K. because she would just be like what are your dreams & encouraging them. They were probably a safe space for Meghan in the UK compared to her in laws so nice she’s keeping up to date with them & sent them flowers this week.
Thanks for that background. How lovely. The value of feeling inspired and seen is so tremendous and that’s how I’m reading the impact on the volunteers. I agree it was a safe space for Meghan too.
Such a lovely story! As a side note, I bought the cookbook to support these wonderful brave ladies but never anticipated USING it as I’m, err, not a very good cook. But all of the recipes are very straightforward and easy to follow, I’ve made several already and can’t recommend it on its own merit enough!!!!
I have owned so many cookbooks, and this one is actually in heavy rotation. It’s great, and I wish there was a chance for a follow up.
Same! I love the cookbook. It’s so beautifully done, photos are high quality, the stories with each recipe are neat and bonus, the recipes themselves make really good meals. They’re so fun to try out. Some are a bit labor intensive so I save them for special dinners. I’ve liked every one I’ve tried.
Came here to say I LOVE the cookbook. Have made several things and all were delicious. If you want a simple and REALLY delicious recipe (And the one we make the most) make the Moroccan pancakes! We had our honeymoon there and every time I eat them it takes me back! It’s a totally authentic recipe!
Thanks for telling us about the Moroccan pancakes. I have misplaced my cookbook and didn’t have the recipe. It found it online. Yummy.
https://utterlyscrummy.blogspot.com/2018/10/baghrir-moroccan-pancakes.html
Yesterday afternoon I was going to buy a few of the cookbooks-some as gifts (this really was a wonderful project that made an impact in a short time). ON Amazon it says whatever? proceeds go to the Royal Foundation of Duke & Duchess of Cambridge (they still had Duke & Duchess of Sussex listed though). I do have very strong opinions, beliefs and many questions about the Royal Foundation’s finances. None of them good. Is there a way to find out if the proceeds will actually go to the Hubb community. Realize it’s not a lot of $ from one person – the idea that the charity will not actually get the money and it going toward troll pay, botox or vacations really bothers me. It looks like a really beautiful cookbook.
I love this. She also sent flowers to all the women. I love that there was a need – families needed to eat after the fire – and these women stepped up and then Meghan stepped up for them and helped them get the funding they needed.
The cookbook is really good and one of the things I love about it is the simple stories the women tell about their lives – it humanizes the victims in a way that just straight reporting can’t. And it also destroys any prejudices people might have about the victims – they’re different races, different religions, have different backgrounds, they talk about wanting to own food trucks or how their MILs come to visit or who taught them to cook, their husbands being “gym rats” – its just a really quick and simple look into their lives that I really liked.
Meghan can still make another cookbook with the Hubb ladies. They aren’t a royal charity so there would be nothing holding her back and I imagine it would be even easier this time around because the palace wouldn’t be trying to kneecap her at every turn. I think it would be great if they made another one. Meg would also be able to choose the media she works with, which would make everything more positive all around.
It’s so good that Meghan is still keeping in touch with these women. I’m sure Meghan found a lot of solace visiting the kitchen, especially when everybody else treated her like an outsider.
I always thought it was so lovely how much she and the ladies seemed to bond. Now that you mentioned it, in hindsight it really must have felt like a respite for her to spend time with them after dealing with the viper pit that calls itself a royal family and their courtiers and staff.
You can tell her and the Hubb ladies adore each other (and the feeling is mutual). Plus they were her first project and I’m sure she’s got feelings of pride on seeing how far they’ve come.
One day, I’ll get the cookbook lol
Omg! I didn’t know Meghan started the Hubb. *insert crying emoji*
That makes this even more beautiful. So amazing.
She didn’t start it, but they were only able to be open 2 days a week. Meghan started with the intention of keeping it open 7 days a week, and here we are! It’s amazing, I also feel like a proud mom, and I’m seven years older than her.
#CouldaHadABossBeyotch
The more I think of it, the more I believe Meghan was truly an *existential* threat to the BRF. She showed that anyone off the street (not really but in their view) can come into the organization and do a better job than everyone there, and be more loved. Diana was at least the daughter of an Earl. But Meghan is everything the whole concept of a royal family was built to exclude. And her doing projects like this and literally ALL of her other work as a Royal told the whole world, Look, if this WERE a meritocracy (which by definition royal families cannot ever be), there are much, much, much more worthy people out there who could be dedicating their lives to helping and representing your country. Among the million other reasons that the family hated Meghan (her giving Harry courage and empowering him; her being Black biracial and American and divorced and an actress; her being far more attractive and well-spoken than any of them), I think it was the simple logic she represents of, “If THIS person who had NOTHING to do with the UK or the Royals before now, can be SOOOOO much better at doing the royal family’s job than anyone in the family (Harry excepted), then why oh why do you even have a royal family in the first place?!”
100%
A second cookbook is a great idea. And could be done virtually as well. Meghan doesn’t need to be there to continue to help this organization grow and thrive.
I’ll bet money a second book is on the way leading to more like the Bridge cookbook series. I’m happy for this union Meghan have with the Hubb women.
I’ll bet you’re right, Petra, and guess what? We won’t hear about until it’s READY. Meghan doesn’t do “keen.”
I miss her.
There’s so many great things about this project but i love that the women in the kitchen were able to get certifications and many started their own businesses while also being able to use proceeds to help frontline workers and the hungry during this pandemic. It’s also amazing that the book sold so well that they are still sending out grants to other orgs in the UK like Migrateful, which supports refugees.
It is frustrating to think about how Meghan jumped in so quickly to help this community and probably wantee to do so much more but was bullied out of the country by Mr. And Mrs. Like and Subscribe but i appreciate that she still keeps a watch not only on the Hubb but Smartworks and the Mayhew and supports them and their work.