A sheet feeding apparatus includes stacker for stacking a sheet material; a feed roller for separating the sheet material stacked on the stacker; a rotatable separation roller rotatable by being driven by the feed roller; and a torque limiter for controlling rotation of the separation roller; wherein a second or subsequent sheet material staying in a nip between the feed roller and the separation roller is separated from the separation roller by a rotational direction of the feed roller being changed from a forward rotational direction to a backward direction and by a rotational direction of the separation roller being changed to a backward direction by the feed roller during a first sheet material which is in contact to the feed roller being nipped by the nip; and a first sheet material is fed toward downstream of the nip by the rotational direction of the feed roller being changed from the backward direction to the forward direction.