The Duchess of Sussex has launched her first solo charity project — a cookbook to raise funds for a community kitchen that works to support the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. 

Meghan has been visiting the Hubb Community Kitchen in west London in secret since January, and said she “immediately felt connected” to the kitchen and the women who run it.

The Duchess of Sussex is supporting a new charity cookbook, 'Together: Our Community Cookbook', which celebrates the power of cooking to bring communities together. #CookTogetherpic.twitter.com/XEclxgQjR4

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) September 17, 2018

“It is a place for women to laugh, grieve, cry, and cook together,” she wrote in a foreword for the book, called Together: Our Community Cookbook. 

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The book, published by Penguin Random House, features 50 recipes from women affected by the fire, and celebrates the benefits of cooking together as a community. 

“Melding cultural identifies 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,” continued the Duchess in the foreword. “Through this charitable endeavour, the proceeds will allow the kitchen to thrive and keep the global spirit of community alive.” 

So far, the kitchen — based at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre — has only been able to open two days a week because of a lack of funding. 

But Meghan hopes the money raised by the book will help keep it open for seven days a week for at least two years, according to Sky News. 

“Our kitchen has always been a place of good food, love, support, and friendship,” said the women who run the kitchen, writing in the introduction. “We cook the recipes we’ve grown up with; there’s no stress, and the recipes always work because they have been made so many times — it’s proper comfort food.”

The Duchess of Sussex first visited the kitchen in January, and has continued to make regular private visits. United by their passion for cooking as a way of strengthening communities, The Duchess was inspired by how the project empowers women at a grassroots level. #CookTogetherpic.twitter.com/jY5XIAtw2h

— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) September 17, 2018

“Swapping family recipes and moments of laughter gave us a sense of normality and home,” they wrote. “We named ourselves the Hubb Community Kitchen to celebrate the thing that we all feel every time we meet — ‘hubb’ means love in Arabic.”

Baroness Rebuck DBE, chair of Penguin Random House, added: “Every woman who has contributed a recipe to this book has also contributed a fragment of their lives and memories. Each dish tells a story of culture, family, and a sense of home.” 

The book will be on sale online from Monday, and will be available in bookshops from Thursday.

“The Duchess of Sussex first visited the itching in January 2018 and has continued to make regular private visits,” said a spokesperson for Kensington Palace. 

“United by their passion for cooking as a way of strengthening communities, the Duchess was inspired by how the project empowers women at a grassroots level, and championed the cookbook project as a way of ensuring the kitchen can continue transforming lives and communities through cooking,” they added.