Meghan Markle and Kimberly Williams-Paisley Catch Up Over Cozy Lunch at Montecito Hot Spot

Meghan Markle and Kimberly Williams-Paisley caught up over an Italian meal last weekend.

On Sunday, July 21, the Duchess of Sussex, 42, and actress and activist, 52, were seen leaving Tre Lune in Montecito, California, in photos obtained by the Daily Mail. The Italian restaurant and celebrity hot spot is in the same Santa Barbara enclave where Meghan lives with husband Prince Harry and their kids Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex dined at Tre Lune a few days before Meghan's birthday last August.

The pair, who are both alumni of Northwestern University, caught up over pasta and wine, PEOPLE understands. Williams-Paisley graduated from Northwestern in 1993, and the Duchess of Sussex earned her degree in 2003.

Meghan and Williams-Paisley aced summer style, with the Duchess of Sussex wearing a white Anine Bing button-down tucked into jeans with Chanel flats. She accessorized with Ray-Ban aviator shades and two gold necklaces, carrying her Dior Lady D-Lite handbag.

Meanwhile, the Nashville star wore a breezy blue dress with a sling bag, pushing her hair back with sunglasses and sporting sneakers.

While the two haven't been photographed together before, they have plenty in common, both professionally and philanthropically. In addition to their college connection, Williams-Paisley shot to stardom in the 1991 film Father of the Bride, while Meghan starred in the first seven seasons of Suits before stepping back from acting following her royal engagement to Prince Harry, 39, in 2017.

Meghan and Williams-Paisley also share a commitment to paying it forward through their charitable efforts. Meghan and Prince Harry founded their non-profit Archewell Foundation in 2020 to serve as an umbrella for their various philanthropic endeavors.

In a similar initiative, Williams-Paisley and her husband Brad Paisley founded The Store in Nashville in 2020 to provide free groceries -

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to families experiencing poverty.

In April 2021, the couple opened up to PEOPLE about the impact of providing nearly 1.3 million meals during The Store's first year.

"This has been our dream," Williams-Paisley said at the time. "People will be able to come and shop with dignity and make choices for their family."

While The Store operates in Tennessee, the Paisleys have a second home in California with their teen sons, Huck and Jasper.

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Archewell Foundation has also endeavored to address food insecurity in times of crisis. Archewell has partnered with chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen since December 2020 to create positive community change. The groups have worked in tandem to build four Community Relief Centers around the world and distributed meals in Ukraine.

"I love them," Andrés previously told PEOPLE. "I have been able to spend time with them, working with them and they are very hands-on and highly knowledgeable of what's happening in the world, what the issues are, and what the needs are."

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Meghan has also shared her culinary creativity for multiple charitable cookbooks, sharing a lemon olive oil cake recipe for The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope, published in September 2023. She was also instrumental in the release of Together: Our Community Cookbook after cooking with a group of women who suffered after the Grenfell Tower tragedy at the Hubb Community Kitchen while living in the U.K. in 2018.

The Duchess of Sussex wrote the foreword for the collection of 50 recipes, and a portion of the proceeds benefited the community cooking space.

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