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Carlisle Foodbank founder leaves more than £1m to help communities across Cumbria

Rachael Rodway, who founded Carlisle Foodbank, left more than £1 million to Cumbria Community Foundation, where it will support local organisations tackling poverty, health inequalities and other community needs.

By The TEA Editorial Desk · 28 August 2026

Rachael Rodway, founder of Carlisle Foodbank, whose legacy will support community groups across Cumbria Image: Cumbria Community Foundation / local source coverageOriginal source

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The founder of Carlisle Foodbank has left more than £1 million to help community organisations across Cumbria continue the kind of work she spent years supporting herself.

Rachael Rodway, a solicitor and charity trustee who died in 2022, left the money to Cumbria Community Foundation.

The legacy will strengthen the foundation’s Cumbria Fund, which can support local projects responding to , poor health, , community cohesion and climate change.

Rodway founded and chaired Carlisle Foodbank, which itself previously received support from the Cumbria Fund. The foodbank has since expanded its work with a community shop, café and social hub, with the café named Rachael’s in her memory.

It is a final act of community giving, but the foundation has also stressed that legacies do not need seven figures to matter. Smaller gifts are pooled with other donations and used to back local organisations where the need is greatest.