Meghan Markle's touching reunion with the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen

The Duchess of Sussex made a surprise visit to the Hubb Community Kitchen in West London on Wednesday morning to see how the funds raised by Together: Our Community Cookbook are already making a difference.

Pregnant Meghan was greeted warmly upon her arrival to the Al Manaar Centre and there were hugs all round as she joined the women of the kitchen to prepare meals for the local community, who have been affected by the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

The Duchess has been making regular private trips to the kitchen since January and learned that it was only able to open for two days a week, due to lack of funding.

The cookbook has raised £210,000 in the UK alone with 40,000 copies sold so far. They had set out to raise £250,000.

Thanks to the proceeds from Together, published in September, the women are now able to use the kitchen seven days a week and have been upskilled to gain food hygiene qualifications and empowered to start their own projects.

The space has also been completely redesigned and re-fitted, with the women’s input. The new facilities provide a safe and professional space for them to cook, gather and run activities within their community.

Meghan, wearing an autumnal berry coat and £178 dress by Club Monaco, stayed 20 minutes longer than planned to chat to the women.

Meghan’s husband Harry and her mother Doria Ragland were present at the launch within the grounds of Kensington Palace in September. The Duchess helped the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen to prepare lunch and gave a three minute speech unaided in which she said she felt ‘privileged’ to know them.

She said: ‘Working on this project for the past nine months has been a tremendous labour of love. I have just recently moved to London and I felt so immediately embraced by the women in the kitchen, by your kindness and to be in this city and be in this room and see how multi-cultural it was.

‘On a personal level I feel so proud to live in a city with so much diversity. This whole country is represented by the people in the kitchen. It’s pretty outstanding.

‘There’s so many people to thank – I’m extremely grateful because this is my first project and I appreciate your support. It truly took a village to see this through. Everyone has embraced this so fully because it has been a passion project for us all.’

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