The Soup Kitchen Rochdale receives The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

The Soup Kitchen Rochdale has been honoured with a Queen's Award for Voluntary Service – the highest award a group can receive in the UK.

Run by a group of 52 volunteers, The Soup Kitchen Rochdale is one of 244 local charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups nationally to receive the prestigious award this year.

Based in Champness Hall on Drake Street, the soup kitchen was founded in 2013 by trustees Marilyn Jones and Vida Slater after recognising a need to provide support for the homeless and vulnerable.

They initially started by serving soup from the boot of a car in front of Rochdale Town Hall. Word quickly got around and the demand substantially increased to the point of needing a permanent site.
 

Read more: Rochdale soup kitchen serving homeless and vulnerable peoplePublished: 19 January 2017

After being based in St Chad’s for a year, Champness Hall was identified as a potential permanent home, although extensive refurbishment was needed.

This included installing a kitchen, dining room, serving kitchen, bathroom, doctor’s room and office for clients to visit four nights a week plus Saturday lunchtime.

Marilyn and Vida said: “We are absolutely delighted that the hard work that all our volunteers have put in for many years has been recognised in this way.

“It is testament to the many hours they have worked tirelessly collecting the donations, storing, organising and preparing the parcels ready for collection.

“We are extremely grateful for The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in granting our soup kitchen this award; it means the world to every single one of us.”

During the pandemic, the volunteers were faced with the logistical difficulties of making sure people were still being fed. They worked alongside other voluntary organisations to facilitate home deliveries where possible, eventually delivering close to 700 meals a week.

The Soup Kitchen has now reopened its doors and supplies food to clients three times a week: many of its goods come from local supermarkets and other local businesses which donate unsold and date compromised groceries and toiletries.

The group currently provides approximately 300 bags of supplies a week – some are vegetarian, some are specialist bags for people who have no facility to cook at all, some for individuals who might have access to a minimal cooking facility.

Any surplus food is taken and distributed to local hostels so absolutely nothing is wasted.

The trustees now include Steve Slater; Vida’s husband, Mark Slater; and Neil Helliwell.

Commonly known as the MBE for volunteer groups, the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities.

It was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee; recipients are announced each year on 2 June, the anniversary of the Queen's Coronation.