Distress Charities: Overview and Appeal
From the Hastings Mail of 11/03/1905
A letter from Charity Organisation Society chairman George Randell, of St Pauls School, made “an appeal for funds to enable our relief work to be continued for a few weeks longer”. The unification of the agencies under the COS meant it had become responsible for nearly all the expenditure of the various district committees, ie, the Old Town, West Hill, Hollington, the Central, plus the All Souls, Ore, Old Town, Emmanuel and Halton soup kitchens. It also gave grants to the Ore Penny Dinner Fund and the Children’s Breakfast Fund at the Coffee Tavern. The head teachers had also amalgamated their boot fund with the association. “Although the distress this winter is not so acute as last, yet it is very general.” In January and February there had been 1,787 applications, 1,496 of which were assisted, spending £293 18s. This was the second appeal of the winter. [The trams were providing lots of jobs. The West Hill soup kitchen in Emmanuel Road closed on March 10 for the season.]