Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is “proud” of the “incredible” achievements of the women who created the Hubb community kitchen in the wake of the Grenfell fire tragedy.
The former ‘Suits’ actress made a phone call from her California home to a group who had gathered for a celebratory lunch at the Al-Manaar centre in London on Wednesday (27.10.21) and congratulated them on their efforts and how far they have come since they established the facility, which provided meals for bereaved and homeless locals after the shocking tower block blaze in June 2017, which killed 72.
Meghan – who wrote the foreword for the Hubb’s ‘Together’ cookbook, which raised funds to renovate the kitchen – told the group: “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 lunch was staged to mark the achievements of the women, who have launched their own projects since the cookbook, and Meghan – who has son Archie, two, and daughter Lili, four months, with husband Prince Harry – praised the way they and the kitchen have become the heart of the local community.
She continued: “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…”
One of the volunteers, Chérine Mallah, admitted it was “lovely” to hear from the duchess.
She told the Evening Standard newspaper: “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.”