Meghan Markle and Prince Harry donned hair nets and facemasks as they volunteered alongside former gang members at a Los Angeles bakery.
The Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, who are currently living in Tyler Perry’s $18 million mansion in Los Angeles having stepped back from royal duties in March, visited the Homeboy Industries cafe and bakery yesterday.
The couple appeared low-key in photographs shared of the visit, as they helped prepare food and learn more about the organisation’s programme.
The bakery shared snaps of the couple’s visit on Instagram, posting: ‘Thank you to Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for visiting and standing in kinship with our Café and Bakery teams yesterday!
Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38, joined former gang members at a bakery in Los Angeles to volunteer and make food for the elderly in the area (pictured, at their final royal duty in March)
‘Our staff were thrilled to work alongside them as they helped prepare food and learned more about our newly launched #FeedHOPE program, which employs our program participants to provide meals to food-insecure seniors and youth across Los Angeles in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.’
Meghan donned a smart white shirt and relaxed denim jeans for the volunteering effort, sweeping her hair into a low bun to tuck into her net.
Meanwhile Prince Harry opted to match his wife in a similar smart white shirt as he joined her on the production line.
The couple could be seen helping out to bake bread, as well as folding dough and sorting out food boxes for the vulnerable in their new hometown.
According to Harper Bazaar’s royal editor Omid Scobie, it is run by Father Gregory Boyle, who the Duke and Duchess have been speaking with about the racial justice movement.
Meghan first met Father Boyle 20 years ago at a Homeboy Industry cooking workshop where she and her mother Doria made tamales.
Father Gregory had worked at Meghan’s former school Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School.
A representative of the couple said the Duke and Duchess ‘connect deeply’ with the organisation’s mission (which includes resources such as counselling, education, legal assistance, addiction recovery and employment ops) and feel it’s ‘a perfect example of how empathy, kindness, and compassion can change the world.’
The organisation describes itself as ‘a beacon of hope in Los Angeles to brave men and women seeking to transform their lives after gang-involvement and incarceration.’
It provides support to nearly 9,000 individuals through job training and free services such as tattoo removal, mental health services, GED classes, legal services, and more.
It also helps provide space for our clients to heal from intergenerational cycles of violence in a community of radical compassion.
It is the third time the couple have been seen volunteering during the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, Meghan and Prince Harry were spotted out on the streets of LA as they continued their volunteering work for charity amid the crisis.
The couple were seen linking arms and holding hands as they delivered packages to residents from the back of their $35,000 Cadillac XT5, having seemingly downgraded from the Porsche SUV they had used previously.
It emerged that the couple, who moved to Los Angeles with 11-month-old son Archie a month ago, have been distributing meals to the needy in LA for the Project Angel Food charity.
A source close to the couple told the Daily Mail that they had hoped to keep their volunteering private but were glad the charity was being recognised.
The Sussexes initially moved to Canada after stepping down as senior working royals on March 31 but are now forging out new lives for themselves as they set up home in California.
The news comes days after a friend of Meghan’s told DailyMail.com that her instinct to leave the United Kingdom and move to California all makes sense to her now, because she believes she was ‘destined’ to help fight systemic racism in the United States.
The Duchess feels that her ‘gnawing urgency to uproot from England’ was fate so she could be at the ‘forefront’ of the movement, the insider explained.
They added: ‘Meghan said her work as a leader is more important than ever right now and that she’s been speaking with Oprah and other community leaders on how she can be part of the solution.
‘Meghan feels like her mission goes far beyond acting. She said she wants to use her voice for change and hasn’t ruled out a career in politics.’
Meghan, who quit her royal duties with husband Prince Harry earlier this year and relocated to LA in March, recently distanced herself from best friend Jessica Mulroney after she threatened to sue a black influencer over a dispute.
It came as the United States has been rocked by protests across the country in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and other African-Americans who have died at the hands of police, sparking national conversations about racism.
Meghan spoke out about Floyd’s death earlier this month, declaring ‘black lives matter’ and admitted she hadn’t made a statement earlier because she had been ‘nervous’.