THE Together cookbook by the Hubb Community Kitchen and Meghan Markle has raised over £500,000 for the charity.
Having sold over 130,000 copies as of March this year, the book has surpassed its target of raising £250,000.
Following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 – which claimed the lives of 72 people and left hundreds more homeless – a group of women came together to cook and prepare fresh meals for their families and neighbours.
With homes destroyed, many women gathered in the communal kitchen at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in West London where they cooked and prepared food for those in need.
As word spread and more women joined, it became known as the Hubb Community Kitchen – something which Meghan Markle was so inspired by, she decided to get involved and help raise money for the important cause.
Not long later, the kitchen released a book, called Together: Our Community, featuring 50 recipes from the women involved and including a foreword from the Duchess herself.
The influences and styles range from across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Some of the dishes include green chilli and avocado dip, coconut chicken curry, aubergine masala, Persian chicken with barberry rice, caramelised plum upside-down cake and spiced mint tea.
The cookbook aimed to raise £250,000 to keep the Hubb going – but this week, the annual financial report for The Royal Foundation has revealed that the book has raised a whopping £557,638 after selling over 130,000 copies.
“In her first programme with The Royal Foundation, The Duchess of Sussex worked closely with the women she had met at the Hubb Community Kitchen,” the report read.
“As she established her new home in London, Her Royal Highness saw the power and vibrancy of this community, and together they created the cookbook to raise money.
“The Duchess suggested creating a cookbook of the recipes, to support the Kitchen as a place to bring the community together over food.
“By March 2019, 130,000 copies of the Together Cookbook were sold worldwide. The resulting funds mean the kitchen has been completely refurbished and is now open seven days a week.
“The women have been working with the social enterprise charity UnLtd to develop their own plans and ideas.”
Meghan first visited the kitchen – which ran for two days a week – in January 2018, and continued to make personal visits.
The Royal Foundation said: “United by their passion for cooking as a way of bringing communities together, The Duchess was inspired by how the project empowers women at a grassroots level and has championed the cookbook project as a way of ensuring the kitchen can continue transforming lives and communities through cooking.”
And Meghan herself said of the project: “I immediately felt connected to this community kitchen; it is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry and cook together.
“Melding cultural identities under a shared roof, it creates a space to feel a sense of normalcy – in its simplest form, the universal need to connect, nurture, and commune through food, through crisis or joy – something we can all relate to…
“Through this charitable endeavour, the proceeds will allow the kitchen to thrive and keep the global spirit of community alive.”
The 128-page book, published by Penguin Random House, was released on September 20 and is still on sale.
You can snap it up on Amazon for £9.99 and it is also available on the Waterstones website.
In other royal news, we told you Meghan Markle won’t return to work until autumn – but will ‘mirror’ Kate Middleton by attending a ‘few engagements’ before then, royal biographer claims.
We also revealed Prince Louis wore the exact same shirt to Trooping the Colour that uncle Prince Harry wore 30 years earlier.
And we showed you Meghan Markle flaunted flashy THIRD ring at Trooping the Colour.
