This week, the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden reported that the Hubb Community Kitchen is “closing down.” Eden confidently reported that Hubb’s closure is because the Duchess of Sussex moved to America in 2020, and therefore she wasn’t around to continue supporting the kitchen. As I wrote, it doesn’t make much sense to still operate Hubb as a community kitchen nearly nine full years after the Grenfell Tower Fire. I wrote that “Hubb was always supposed to be a temporary solution to an immediate problem for Grenfell families.” Those families have been assimilated into other communities or they’ve found homes with their own family kitchens. Well, People Magazine picked up the Mail’s story and it sounds like someone (from Hubb or from Archewell) set the record straight:
The first charitable project that Meghan Markle backed as part of her royal work has reportedly ceased operations. On Feb. 16, Richard Eden of the Daily Mail reported that Hubb Community Kitchen in London had shut down.
“I can’t talk about the Duchess of Sussex, but the Hubb Community Kitchen has stopped,” a spokesperson for the community kitchen told the outlet.
PEOPLE understands that the kitchen was always intended to be a temporary, time-limited hub to support Grenfell survivors who had been displaced and were living in accommodation without cooking facilities. The project wound down because its purpose had been fulfilled: those families have since been rehoused in permanent accommodation with kitchens, meaning there is no longer a need for the facility to operate.
PEOPLE has contacted the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre, where the Hubb Community Kitchen was based, and a spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex for comment.
The Hubb Community Kitchen was the first charitable cause that Meghan, 44, supported solo after getting engaged to Prince Harry in 2017. The Hubb Community Kitchen was an initiative begun by women affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017, and the group would come together to cook for the community members displaced by the devastating fire in which 72 people died.
Many of you pointed out in the comments that it’s not like these community activists are going away – many Hubb volunteers started their own programs, using Hubb as a blueprint or inspiration for community-led activism. The fact that Hubb is closing down is a good thing, and this is a success story. It means that the need for an emergency community kitchen has dissipated if not vanished completely. It means that the Grenfell families have successfully found homes and that they’re finding new ways to support their community.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
