About Rochdale Foodbank
Devastating Boxing Day Flood
Boxing Day 2015 saw a major disaster for many people and businesses in Rochdale
Days of persistent rain in the surrounding area caused river levels to rise to the point at which they could no longer cope with the amount of water – and finally gave in.
A brief story of the devastation the flood waters caused to Rochdale Foodbank
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Flood waters rose and engulfed many shops and businesses within the town centre. Rochdale Foodbank was caught right in the centre of it. |
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South Parade and all the properties in the vicinity were deluged by flood water as the river level rose. |
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‘The Pacific’ was our main foodbank reception. Our warehouse – to the left in the picture took the main brunt of the flood water with water levels rising over 2 feet. Our warehouse suffered the worst food damage. |
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Inside the warehouse 7 tonnes of food was damaged and would need to be destroyed. |
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Destroyed food was loaded into skips – kindly donated by Rochdale Council, at the rear of the foodbank ready for disposal. |
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Staff, and what remained of our usable stock, temporarily moved into the Town Hall so we could continue business whilst the warehouse was cleaned and repaired. |
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We were helped by Rochdale Round Table who kindly donated £1,000 from their Christmas Cash and Can Collection and the Rochdale Freemasons who also gave us £1,000. These donations helped us cope with increased costs incurred during the flood. Our deepest thanks go to all who went out of their way during this period to help us. We moved into our warehouse on 11th January 2016 to use as our main reception whilst work then started to clean and repair our original home at no. 8 South Parade. |
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After cleaning work, on 18th April 2016 Rochdale Foodbank finally moved back into no. 8 South Parade – our original premises. We are now proud again to welcome clients into our foodbank. |