Derbyshire County Council spending £500,000 to tackle food poverty

The Trussell Trust said demand for its food banks has tripled since 2012

More than half-a-million pounds is being spent by Derbyshire County Council to help tackle food poverty in the region.

The figure of £528,550, paid for out of the public health fund, is being used to find sustainable solutions to food poverty.

These include the provision of a Fareshare store for fresh produce.

Other projects include support for breakfast clubs, community kitchens and social supermarkets.

The latter sell rejected supermarket food, which might be incorrectly labelled or have damaged packaging.

'Moral case'

A spokeswoman for the council said: "The reason we've made the decision to tackle food poverty using public health money is because a lack of proper nutrition affects physical and mental health.

"In the long term this will cause huge pressures on health and social care costs - so there is an economic as well as a moral case for us to take preventative action to address the issue."

The authority said it had also set up funding pots to help food banks deal with rising demand.

On Friday, a new food bank opened in Sawley, bringing the total number in the county to 23.

Another food bank in Matlock is also offering a delivery service to help residents who would otherwise face paying more in transport costs to use the service.

The exact number of people using food banks is not known but the Trussell Trust, the biggest network of food banks in the UK, said it helped to feed hundreds of thousands of people a year.

A third of all councils in England and Wales said they had subsidised food banks.