The Duchess of Edinburgh Volunteers at The Lighthouse Charity

19th December 2024 | Royal Visits to Surrey

The Duchess of Edinburgh Volunteers at The Lighthouse Charity

The Duchess of Edinburgh Volunteers at The Lighthouse Charity

The Lighthouse charity in Woking, Surrey was delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh to volunteer on Wednesday 18th December 2024.

The Duchess joined volunteers in serving a hot free meal, helping beneficiaries in the hygiene bank, chatting to visitors, meeting mothers and little ones, doing crafts with Ukrainian refugees, and serving customers in the charity’s social enterprise café.

The Duchess is patron of The Lighthouse charity and has volunteered frequently over recent years. The charity has a wide range of projects and services that support local people in need. This includes providing essential food, clothing and equipment, alongside wellbeing groups, debt coaches, community meals, parenting courses, creative workshops, and much more.

The Lighthouse co-founder Rebecca Jespersen said, “We are so grateful to Her Royal Highness for her continued inspirational support, bringing encouragement and joy to our volunteer teams and beneficiaries alike.”

The Duchess is pictured serving homemade soup in ‘The Cosy’ social enterprise café, which is sold in distinctive jars with cosies knitted by volunteers. The idea for this product came from The Duchess herself who enjoyed the soup so much on a previous visit, she suggested that it could be sold in jars, complete with a knitted cosy, with proceeds supporting the work of The Lighthouse charity. To celebrate the launch of this product, Her Royal Highness was presented with one of the soup jars as a keepsake.