THE ISLE OF DOGS IS AN area with pockets of considerable poverty alongside extreme affluence. The parish is associated with three initiatives with the specific aim of helping to relieve the effects of poverty. Two of these, The Trevor Huddleston Fund for Children and The Saint Mildred’s Relief in Need Fund provide financial assistance and the third, The Parish Pantry provides food. In the past five years, over 200 grants have been made to Island schools and individuals with a total value of £35,822. Neither fund deals directly with individuals and all requests for grants come through agencies such as Docklands Outreach, the Social Services or the island’s 11 schools. Both are chaired by the Vicar of Christ Church and the Trustees include two head teachers from local schools and a health visitor: people who are in day to day contact with the effects of poverty. The Trustees meet each school term to discuss funding and donations. Neither charity has any overheads: all the money that they receive goes towards donations.

BISHOP TREVOR HUDDLESTON STARTED the Trevor Huddleston Fund for Children, a registered charity, when he was the Bishop of Stepney. The object of the fund is the ‘relief of poverty among children living or belonging to the community of the Isle of Dogs’. It achieves this in two ways: by giving grants to all the schools and health visitors on the Island, and small amounts of money to help with specific individual problems. Typically, these are for £50 to £100.

Each year it gives spring and autumn grants to all the local schools based on their numbers. Schools use their grants for a variety of purposes. Amongst the most frequent are help with school uniforms and school trips. Individual grants have covered such things as clothing for a baby, cots, food at Christmas and help for an activity trip for a disabled child.

The Trevor Huddleston fund has no investments of its own and relies on grants from other charities. The main benefactor has been the Alexandra Trust – a charity that set up by Thomas Lipton over 100 years ago.

THIS FUND HAS ITS ORIGINS in the latter part of the 19th century. A settlement was set up on the Island for a group of women who provided what amounted to social services for the people of the Island. This continued until after the war in which their building received considerably damage. Money left when this organisation closed was invested to provide an income. The object of this fund is to help to relief poverty among families living on or connected with the Isle of Dogs.

THE PARISH PANTRY OPERATES from Christ Church, and provides non-perishable food items to those in urgent need. Bags of food are given to callers at church or the vicarage. The food is collected throughout the year from various donors but particularly at Harvest time. There are probably half a dozen bags handed out each week, some to “regulars” and some to once-off emergencies. Donations of in-date tinned and packet food are always welcome.