County coronavirus funding

Bondholder Foundation Derbyshire's Coronavirus Response Fund, launched last month, has received pledges of support worth more than £260,000.

With the aim of disseminating funds to the county’s network of foodbanks, which have suddenly experienced an unprecedented demand from those whose livelihoods have fallen away, whilst struggling to replenish their own stocks, Derbyshire County Council donated £100,000 of the total, while a further £130,000 has come from the National Emergencies Trust, and £30,000 from Foundation Derbyshire's own donors and fund holders.

The Foundation team, with the assistance of the board of Trustees, has agreed to distribute grants totalling £147,000 to a broad spectrum of recipients, with a further £50,000 authorised in the near future.

Donations are being targeted towards those groups whose work is critical, such as foodbanks, charities that carry out ‘befriending’ services to the elderly, vulnerable, and isolated, as well as the county’s hospices whose cash income has totally ground to a halt as a result of their closed High Street shops and by the cancellation of all their fundraising events.