In 2018, the Duchess of Sussex organized Together: Our Community Cookbook. Meghan began putting the project together before she even married Prince Harry, because Meghan made many private visits to the Grenfell families, the survivors of the 2017 Grenfell Fire. The Grenfell survivors lost their homes, and they were already using a mosque-adjacent kitchen as some kind of makeshift community kitchen. The proceeds of the Together cookbook ensured that the Hubb Community Kitchen would be fully funded for several years, and the Grenfell community would always be able to come together and have a good meal. The cookbook was a huge success, and the other royal women HATED that. To this day, the Princess of Wales calls her annual piano recitals “TOGETHER at Christmas.” Because Kate has never had an original idea. Anyway, long story short, the Hubb Community Kitchen has apparently shut down. After eight years.
It was the charitable cause that defined Meghan Markle’s entry into life as a working royal. But now the Hubb Community Kitchen – a volunteer group created after the Grenfell disaster and backed by the duchess – has quietly closed its doors. The community space was established by survivors at Al Manaar mosque in the aftermath of the fire on June 14, 2017, to provide refuge and home-cooked food to bereaved families in west London.
Meghan, 44, in her first solo project as a working royal, championed the charity in a blaze of publicity, where she helped them to publish their own book: Together Our Community Cookbook, with a foreword from the duchess inside. Supported by The Royal Foundation and published by Penguin Random House, it soared to number one on Amazon within hours of its release, selling 39,000 copies in the UK.
The cookbook, which featured photos of Meghan cooking and embracing women volunteers, was hailed as evidence of a hands-on monarchy and the £210,000 raised enabled a redesign of the group’s kitchen. Indeed, the duchess hosted a special lunch for the book’s launch at Kensington Palace, for which her mother, Doria Ragland, flew over from the US for the occasion. Meghan said at the time: ‘I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together.’
But after Meghan and Harry stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and relocated to the US, it seems that her involvement with the charity has waned. On the third anniversary of the fire which left 72 dead, the duchess made headlines when she honoured the women of the community kitchen via video call from Los Angeles, describing their work as ‘love in action’.
The last time the duchess reached out to Hubb Kitchen was in June 2022, to mark the fifth anniversary of the fire. Since then, it seems the stoves have gone cold on the initiative that symbolised Meghan’s grassroots approach to royal duties. A spokesman for the Hubb Kitchen told the Daily Mail: ‘I can’t talk about the Duchess of Sussex, but the Hubb community kitchen has stopped.’
Am I mistaken or was Hubb always supposed to be a temporary solution to an immediate problem for Grenfell families? They had an immediate need for a community kitchen, and Meghan’s cookbook ensured the full funding of that community kitchen for probably five or six years, if not more. This June will be the ninth anniversary of the Grenfell Fire – is there still a need for a community kitchen, or have the Grenfell families moved to different communities and they’ve already begun the process of rebuilding their lives? This story comes via Richard Eden at the Mail, which is why it’s being framed as “Meghan should have done more to support the kitchen, but she moved away!” Asinine. I also remember that there was some drama with Derangers harassing Hubb’s volunteers on social media too, to the point where Hubb had to shut down some of their social media presence. These people are ghastly.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009013, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan (C), Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009034, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009087, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex helps to prepare food at the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009088, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.,Image: 534664062, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and chef Clare Smyth pose for a group photo with members of the Hubb Community Kitchen after visiting to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.,Image: 534664102, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: /Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and chef Clare Smyth visit the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.,Image: 534665877, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: /Avalon
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has a drink as she visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.
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- LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 21: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visits the Hubb Community Kitchen to see how funds raised by the ‘Together: Our Community’ Cookbook are making a difference at Al Manaar, North Kensington on November 21, 2018 in London, England.,Image: 534664062, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
I was always under the assumption that the kitchen was a temporary place for the families of the fire to come together for meals while rebuilding their lives after losing so much in the fire, I don’t expect that the tabloids will report it that way because they are never fair or honest when it comes to Meghan.
I thought this as well. It would have been nice for the spokesperson for the Hubb kitchen to have clarified that.
They may have clarified and explained everything, but do you honestly believe the daily fail would report that?
Well the Mail called the hubb women terrorists and that it was a terrible idea. I thought Meghan connected with hubb more recently.
Anyway, maybe Maureen should ask how many patronages, actual royal jobs, do lazy and baldy have, how often do they visit, and how many actual royal patronages were shuttered?
“With the support of the royal foundation” what is Eden even talking about? He’s trying to give some of the credit to WanK. The foundation was only involve insofar as being a place for the profits of the book to be processed and distributed to Hubb.
The truth is that as the need to feed their community eased, especially after covid, when they played a pivotal role by providing food to health care workers and other frontline workers; the women were encouraged to started other initiatives to help their immediate community and environs.
The true reporting at that time stressed that these initiatives where tailored towards each woman’s individual talents and wish.
Proceeds from the book provided funding to them.
So the Hub kitchen gave birth to other charity initiatives.
Full-stop👏👏👏👏
My understanding is that some of the folks from the initial Hubb kitchen started their own thing which is similar to food trucks in America. And are operating completely independently from the Hubb Kitchen, and were no longer using it as a gathering space because there was no longer a need to.
That’s what I heard too.
Sounds like it was a temporary thing and the families are not in need anymore and have moved on. Where is all the hate for the many charities that saint Can’t was patron to that closed hmmm.
Yeah I don’t think the Kitchen was supposed to be a permanent initiative. No doubt a lot of the people from Grenfell have moved away. Any funds from the cookbook are now going to the Felix Project, a foodbank in London. This has been stated in the Royal Foundation annual reports for a number of years now.
I wonder why they even reported this outside of a way to make Meghan look bad. What a messy country.
That cookbook enabled a lot of those women from Hubb to move foreword with their lives and establish their own businesses. Hopefully the funds are still helping those involved. The point of a charity isn’t for people to be completely dependent but to use their services during a time of need. The space is still there so will be put to good use. Hopefully all the women involved have moved on to better things.Meghan is no longer their and her life is different. You can’t criticize someone for doing a good thing as s royal, then complain once that person has left and no longer in that role.
“A blaze of publicity…” Nice writing, Daily Fail.
The Hubb Kitchen idea was wonderful and the women who ran it absolutely adored Meghan.
A relief effort meant to support a community immediately and in the aftermath of a disaster is meant to be temporary. That is the goal.
If the Hubb kitchen was still NEEDED by the community almost 10 years after the tragedy – that would indicate a massive failure of the social safety net in Britain on every single level.
Meghan support for the Hubb helped the community have the space, time and money to continue the hard work of healing, as individuals and a community and of moving forward from a place of strength.
Her efforts also helped to shine a spotlight on the importance of compassion across cultures, shared meals, community coming together and ultimately, healing.
The goals of the community and the kitchen have been accomplished.
The media is positioning the community as though they have the same desperate needs for food and shelter as they did in the aftermath of the fire. To still be totally reliant on the triage Hubb kitchen created by the community to serve the community. And to have had their tragedy compounded by now no longer having their kitchen. Because they want Meghan to look bad.
The media outlets are weaving a false narrative of continued devastation and trauma in the community. They are refusing to acknowledge or cover the bright and brilliant ways the community has healed and recovered and moved forward. How the Hubb women have opened food truck. The resilience of a community that was devastated by tragedy. How they remember their losses while looking to the future.
Because that might draw attention to Meghan’s efforts to help support a community reeling from tragedy.
Meghan has never centered herself in other people’s tragedies. She shows up to help and raise awareness. Her aid to the Hubb kitchen was wonderful and instrumental in it staying open for as long as it was needed. But the community created it, ran it, and healed together. They did the hard work. They did the healing. To act as though none of that happened or mattered and only Meghan’s contribution was important is deeply insulting to everyone involved.
The media – as always – needs to do better.
2017–2026.
That’s a long time for an aid project like this. This type of project is designed to bring people together and empower them to become independent and start their own projects. That’s exactly what the women have done. It is not about creating dependency, but about providing active help for as long as it is needed. That is exactly what Meghan did.
The women love and appreciate Meghan, and no inflammatory fanatic can change that. The world has seen it. The community was happy and was able to heal. Now it is independent. That is enough.
Given it’s been nearly a decade since the fire, I would assume many of the families have either moved away or have been able to hopefully settle in accommodations with access to a kitchen. It would be unexpected for them to still need access nearly ten years later. I know fires are devasting and it can take awhile for survivors to get settled again but 10 years seems a bit overkill.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Meghan is still in touch with some of the families. Maybe she even gifted some of them As Ever products! But British tabloids really grasping at straws, this is such a non event! The Epstein files have really overshadowed everything for the BRF and I get the feeling that the Meghan and Harry bashing has been very half hearted and muted these last few months because the news about Andrew has been so loud.