Giving back. Meghan Markle helped prepare Thanksgiving lunch for more than 300 homeless residents of Los Angeles.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, partnered with Downtown Women’s Center ahead of the Thursday, November 24, holiday to package lunches for the shelter’s residents. “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,” read a Friday, November 25, post shared via Meghan’s Archewell website.
An accompanying photo showed the “Archetypes” podcast host slicing pumpkin pie and putting the pieces in to-go containers while casually dressed in a sweatshirt and baseball cap. The former actress, who also wore a face mask for COVID-19 prevention and an apron, worked alongside another volunteer to prep desserts for the meals.
Days after Thanksgiving, accessories brand Cuyana announced that Meghan will also partner with them for a Giving Tuesday event in collaboration with the U.K. charity Smart Works, which aims to help women who are seeking employment. The brand will donate 500 totes to the organization to help its mission of “delivering a work wardrobe” for “women who need help getting into work.”
Meghan, who is a patron of Smart Works, addressed the donation in a statement shared via the brand’s Instagram Story on Monday, November 28. “Smart Works invests in women so they know they can thrive in any workplace and Cuyana is a company that is by women and for women, so this feels like the perfect fit,” the duchess said.
Last year, the Bench author revealed that she prefers a low-key Thanksgiving — especially when she’s the chef. “I love to cook,” she told Ellen DeGeneres in November 2021. “We’ll be home and just sort of relax and settle in. It’s our second Thanksgiving at home in California, so it will be nice.”
The occasion also marked Meghan and Prince Harry‘s first Thanksgiving with daughter Lilibet, now 15 months, who arrived in June 2021. The California native and the Duke of Sussex, 38, are also the parents of son Archie, 3.
The Suits alum and her husband relocated to Montecito, California, after announcing their plans to step down as senior working royals in January 2020. “We moved here during [the coronavirus] lockdown, exactly when things shut down, so we’ve just been able to spend a lot of time at home and creating our home, but I think it’s just the lifestyle and the weather is pretty great,” Meghan told the comedian, 64, of the couple’s home base at the time. “But we’re just happy.”
