The Duke and Duchess of Sussex sponsored lunch for volunteers and staff at The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change on Monday in honor of MLK Day.
According to People, two Black-owned food trucks, Paige’s Pastries & Bistro and Parlay Savory Saloon, served free lunches to people on site who were facilitating the day’s activities, which included a voter registration and education drive plus a service project benefitting the unsheltered, courtesy of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
“Thank you, Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for providing local Black-owned food trucks for @TheKingCenter’s King Day Community Service Project volunteers today,” the center wrote on Twitter. “Your care matters so much to those here to register and educate voters and collect items for our homeless neighbors.”
“So proud of all of the volunteers working to honor MLK’s extraordinary life (and civil rights/humanitarian work). And I’m equally proud of Harry & Meghan for continuing to be true forces for good giving back to society,” a supporter replied.
The fight for MLK Day
The theme of the 2022 King Center commemorative event was “Shifting Priorities to Create the Beloved Community.” It included the Beloved Community Awards, which honored eight people working for social justice, including gymnast Simone Biles, the recipient of the Yolanda D. King Higher Ground Award.
The service featured a keynote speech by the Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry, the first Black presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church. Curry also gave the sermon at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2018 wedding. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat of Georgia, and the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, also delivered messages on Monday.
“We often ask ourselves how the life and legacy of people like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. remain relevant in our current moment, and it would be difficult to overstate how much we need King’s prophetic witness right now,” Curry said last week in a written statement to Episcopal News Service. “From his tireless advocacy for the right of all Americans to vote to his model of faith animating nonviolent work for justice, King calls us to continue his work — and to truly labor for the realization of God’s Beloved Community.”
Dr. Bernice A. King, the leader of the center, thanked the Duke and Duchess on Twitter, writing, “I’m so grateful for your graciousness in honoring my father.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been doing humanitarian work through the Archewell Foundation, whose mission is “to uplift and unite communities — local and global, online and offline — one act of compassion at a time.”
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