Meghan Markle has revealed that she dedicated a portion of her Thanksgiving to preparing a meal for more than 300 women experiencing homelessness.
On 25 November, a day after Thanksgiving, the Duchess of Sussex shared a photo of herself cutting up a pumpkin pie while dressed casually in a sweatshirt and black hat to her and Prince Harry’s Archewell website.
In the photo, which sees Meghan wearing a mask and rubber gloves, she could be seen packing the pie into individual containers, which were then handed out to residents at the Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) in Los Angeles, California, which provides resources for women experiencing homelessness.
“Earlier this week, the Archewell Foundation Team helped prepare a Thanksgiving lunch for over 300 Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) residents in Los Angeles,” the post on the Archewell website reads. “DWC provides a wide array of resources to decrease barriers and end homelessness for all women including female veterans and their families, women with severe physical and mental health concerns and survivors of domestic violence.”
The duchess’s involvement in the Thanksgiving lunch comes after she revealed that she likes to spend Thanksgiving cooking for her loved ones, including her husband and their two children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, one.
“I love to cook, we’ll be home and just relax and sort of settle in,” Meghan told Ellen DeGeneres last year about her Thanksgiving plans.
Ahead of Giving Tuesday, which takes place this year on Tuesday 29 November, it was also revealed that Meghan will be assisting women who need help entering the workforce through a partnership with charity Smart Works and California accessory brand @Cuyana.
“Ahead of #GivingTuesday, Californian accessory brand @Cuyana is partnering with @SmartworksHQ and their patron, Duchess Meghan, to donate 500 bags to women needing help getting into the workplace,” royal reporter Omid Scobie tweeted on Monday. “The charity now has nine centres across the UK and has helped over 25,000 women.”
Kate Stephens, Smart Works’ chief executive, said: “At Smart Works we believe in fashion as a force for good. We know that when a woman looks and feels great about who she is, she can change her life.”
Meghan has been a patron of Smart Works, which empowers women who need help getting work, since 2019.
This is not the first time the duchess has been involved in charity around the holiday, as a post on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig revealed that charity has always been a large part of Meghan’s Thanksgiving traditions.
“Despite the contrast of my two worlds growing up, there was a powerful commonality: both my parents came from little, so they made a choice to give a lot - buying turkeys for homeless shelters at Thanksgiving, delivering meals to patients in hospice care, donating any spare change in their pocket to those asking for it, and performing quiet acts of grace - be it a hug, a smile, or a pat on the back to show ones in need that they would be alright,” the duchess previously wrote, according to People.
