The Duchess of Sussex has carried out her first major charitable event since stepping down as a working royal – organising meals for Londoners in need.

Earlier this week, Meghan asked the Grenfell supporting women of the Hubb Community Kitchen to start a new service providing meals to families in the capital struggling during the coronavirus lockdown.

Meghan and Harry now live in Los Angeles with baby son Archie and are no longer senior royals after formally stepping away from the monarchy on March 31.

The Hubb kitchen, in North Kensington, was the first charitable project Meghan supported during her time as a member of the royal family, and after a number of private visits she encouraged the women to produce a charity cookbook to raise funds to expand their work.

The duchess said: “The spirit of the Hubb Community Kitchen has always been one of caring, giving back and helping those in need, initially in Grenfell and now throughout the UK.

“A home-cooked meal from one neighbour to another, when they need it most, is what community is all about.

“I’m so proud of the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen, and the continued support the Felix Project gives them to carry out these acts of goodwill, which at this moment are urgently needed.”

On Tuesday, the duchess held a conference call with members of the Hubb to discuss her idea about helping to feed residents in London.

The project will be launched on Monday with the women batch cooking in their own homes and then delivering 250-300 meals to families three days a week.

Deliveries will be handled by StreetGames, one of the charitable organisations the Sussexes nominated ahead of their wedding to receive donations from well-wishers, in lieu of gifts.

Harry and Meghan have been pictured making food deliveries in America after it emerged they spent the Easter break dropping off meals to vulnerable and housebound people in Los Angeles.

The couple decided to help out after Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland told them the organisation Project Angel Food needed volunteers.

The duchess’s new project will run alongside a wider effort to supply families in need with food, and she has endorsed the Evening Standard newspaper’s Food for London Now appeal.

The Felix Project, one of London’s largest food redistribution charities, will be supplying the Hubb kitchen with produce for the meals.

Chief executive Mark Curtin said: “The Felix Project is proud to provide Hubb Community Kitchen with the nutritious food they need to cook delicious meals for local people for whom this service provides a crucial lifeline.

“The women of Hubb Community Kitchen came together in the face of tragedy and they have stepped up yet again in the face of a global pandemic.”

Away from Meghan’s new project the Sussexes are planning to launch a charitable organisation named Archewell.