Fresh fruit and vegetables are to be given out to people living in deprived areas of Coventry to encourage them to have a healthy diet.

Surplus food from the European Union is to be handed out through the Area Co-ordination offices to people living in the poorest district.

The initiative is to start in the summer once a new distribution network is set up.

Cauliflowers and cooking and eating apples have been given out in the past but the time involved in distributing the produce meant the system fell into disuse.

Members of Coventry City Council’s Health and Care Policy team heard today that 9,000 cauliflowers, weighing nearly nine tonnes, were given out in July last year.

Organisations were encouraged to pick them up from a central base and distribute them among their communities.

In August last year a consignment of 13 tonnes of apples proved so popular that an additional 17 tonnes were brought in.

But staff shortages meant that the distribution of the fruit and veg had to stop.

European money ha now been made available to take on food poverty workers in Hillfields, Foleshill and Willenhall and Stoke Aldermoor.

In a report Strategic Director (Living Environment) Howard Farrand said:

“These new officers will help facilitate the process until it is more sustainable.

“There is a very positive response to this initiative from the community and there continues to be growing distribution mechanisms within community and voluntary groups.”