Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeding apparatus comprising:

• a sheet accommodating portion which has a sheet accommodating portion body which accommodates sheets therein and a sheet stacking portion which is provided in the sheet accommodating portion body to be lifted and lowered and on which stacks the sheets are stacked thereon;
• a sheet feeding portion which is provided above the sheet accommodating portion and feeds the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking portion;
• a lifting and lowering portion which lifts the sheet stacking portion to press the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking portion onto the sheet feeding portion and lowered the sheet stacking portion to a lowered portion at which the sheets are set;
• a swingable stacking portion which has on the lower surface thereof a projection abutted onto the upper surface of the sheet stacking portion to be swingably supported thereon and on which the sheets are stacked thereon;
• and
• a swing regulating portion which is provided on the swingable stacking portion, is abutted onto a bottom of the sheet accommodating portion body to regulate the swing of the swingable stacking portion when the sheet stacking portion is in the lowered position, and is separated from the bottom of the sheet accommodating portion body to release the regulation of the swing of the swingable stacking portion when the sheet stacking portion is lifted from the lowered position.