About
About Rochdale Foodbank
Find out a little more about us and our support staff
Our foodbank is a project founded by local churches and community groups, working together towards stopping hunger in our local area.
We started our foodbank in 2012 with £400 and 6 people and we expanded quickly. At first we had no idea how big we would grow or how much food we would need. Trussell Trust told us we should start with 3 tonnes of food – so we started collecting at the Feelgood Festival that year.
Premises was our next hurdle: we were offered an unused nightclub in the town centre but unfortunately we couldn’t afford the rent, the landlord reduced the rent for us but we still didn’t have the money needed. A Christian couple then graciously offered to pay our rent for 6 months until we got funding in place – Rochdale Council now kindly help us with the rent.
So, here we are 9 years on, we are now open 5 days a week from 11am to 12:45pm and we have over 100 volunteer staff. Please note: whilst we are in lockdown, our opening times have changed – please click here for recent news.
We are a well run and organised unit, we have a great set of volunteers who work hard and have fun too – we couldn’t do it without them, or without the great generosity of the people of Rochdale who help us in so many ways.
We might be the only person a client speaks to in a day – they may need encouragement or just a listening ear, or just to know that someone cares about them.
The Foodbank
See how the Boxing day flood of 2015 affected our foodbank
The People
Meet the daily volunteer teams
Other Services We Offer
Money management and debt advice