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Rochdale Foodbank Volunteer Celebration  Thursday November 9th

17th November 2017

Rochdale Town Hall was the venue for the volunteers of Rochdale Foodbank to gather and enjoy a wonderful  Afternoon Tea,  with live musical accompaniment from Jack and Izzy (RNCM)  and to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the foodbank.

It is the way we say thank you to the volunteers for another year of hard work, fun and friendship on behalf of all the clients who receive food from the foodbank and also a thank you to the countless unsung heroes who donate so much food on a regular basis.

Again this year, our stocks have become healthy through the kindness of 36 schools and around 25 churches and mosques, with over 6000 kgs of food donated during Harvest time.

We were joined by Tony Lloyd MP, who spoke warmly and passionately about the value placed by everyone in Rochdale for the work taken on by these volunteers. His thoughts were echoed by Cllr Donna Martin, Deputy Leader of Rochdale Council,  who praised the outstanding service to the community made by these volunteers.

Particular tribute was paid to a group of octogenarian volunteers – the oldest being 88, who turn up every week and play a significant role in their teams.#

Iain Wight, Chair of Trustees, saluted the work of each of our daily teams – 15 or so individuals for each day of the week. He talked about the compassion and care offered by these wonderful people- around 90 of them in total – and the hard work they undertook.

He said that they had handled 250 tonnes of food since we started  – equal to 50 African elephants!
They had spoken to, picked food for, and given food to 18,000 different clients over the 5 years – feeding over 36,000 individuals in total in Rochdale.

“We expect some challenging times ahead , which will test our stock levels and our energy! “ said Iain, “ but we believe that God will continue to provide through the incredible generosity of the people of Rochdale and the commitment of these volunteers.”

Some team photos we took at the event…

Tuesday team Wednesday Team Thursday Team Monday team Friday Team

And our special octogenarian volunteers…

80+ group 02

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