The Great (Food) Bank Heist

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Now the UK being a developed country, it hardly seems possible that there would be people struggling to get a decent meal three times a day, but apparently it is a reality that many prefer to ignore. They get to go to the breakfast club before school, where they get a good meal, and they get school lunches too. Each of the pages has a yellow colour making it easier to read and thick pages mean there’s no shadow of the text from the other side of the page. The Great (Food) Bank Heist is trying to raise awareness of this issue, it's showing people who might never have even thought about it before that it's happening all around us. He's hungry all the time, he's in pain, and he can hear his sister crying herself to sleep at night because she's so hungry.

The Great Food Bank Heist | BookTrust The Great Food Bank Heist | BookTrust

There’s hardly any food left in the house and Nelson’s mum has to regularly go to the food bank because they just don’t have enough to eat. The great illustrations throughout make the book more accessible and give the text added life, published by Barrington Stoke this is a brilliantly accessible story not only for dyslexics, reluctant readers but for everyone. It's important to show kids that not everyone around them is as lucky as them, that some people struggle even just to survive.

It's awful to think how many children go to school hungry and how many families that depend on food banks. My 10 and 12 year old boys read the book in about an hour, not realizing what the book was going to be about and hounded me to read it with glowing reviews. Written with great empathy and Rauf’s trademark humour, this moving story gives a child’s-eye view of the increasing problem of food poverty. I liked Nelson’s character from the start and how he tries to distract his sister with games when she’s asking for food.

The Great Food Bank Heist by Onjali Q. Raúf The Great Food Bank Heist by Onjali Q. Raúf

They love going into the bank, seeing the kind people who work there, and coming away with bags of food and supplies that will help to get them through the month; that will stop their stomachs from aching for a little while. There are some really great illustrations dotted throughout the book, sometimes filling part of a page and sometimes a whole page. We all need to understand how bad this is, and hiding it from children only leads to adults ignorant of the issue. In “The Real Hunger Games” we are shown some of the games the family plays to keep their spirits up. This is definitely a book to recommend to raise awareness and understanding of this heart breaking and serious issue.

Nelson loves Voucher Thursdays as Mum takes him and his little sister Ashley to the food bank, the best place in the world. Some times though, it isn't enough, Mum has to pawn her jewelry, they go without meals, and generous friends share their snacks. But more importantly it leads to conversation around a difficult topic and leads to more awareness about the state of things which is an admirable step.

The Great (Food) Bank Heist by Onjali Q. Rauf | WHSmith The Great (Food) Bank Heist by Onjali Q. Rauf | WHSmith

I would love to discuss how the book might have ended differently, or chidrens' feelings about the thieves, if they had been stealing the food for themselves rather than to sell off. Together with his best friends Krish and Harriet, he plans a covert stakeout of the supermarket to catch the culprits. I love that it shows how the family has food insecurities on a day-to-day basis and how never feeling full affects so much of the characters' attention.

The great food bank heist” highlights the the unheard plight of hungry families and the importance of food bank donations.