And then three men. And then Krish and another kid I didn’t know.
They were all coming to stand in front of me so that the van man couldn’t hurt me!
“Exit the van with your hands up, NOW!” shouted a big man. It was the security guard that had been chasing after me and Ashley and Harriet and Krish just minutes before. He was sweating so much he looked as if he had just been for a swim.
“Come on! OUT! The jig is up!”
CHAPTER 9
The Equaliser
After the security guard shouted out those words of warning, people came running from all directions. The supermarket manager and lots of supermarket workers wearing bright orange vests came running up to the van and shouted at the thieves to open the doors. And then suddenly there were blue lights flashing and lots of police arrived too! All of them stood around the van as, at last, the man and woman gave up and came out with their hands in the air.
A police officer took their keys from them and opened up the back doors of the van.
Everyone gasped at the mountains of food stacked from the floor of the van to its roof.
“Whoah!” cried out Krish. “There must be fifty trolley loads in there! They’re PROPER thieves!”
“That’s about right,” said the supermarket manager as she turned to look down at me and Harriet and Ashley and Krish. We stood in front of her, our hands all messy with bits of crisps and chocolate and blobs of slime.
“And you all helped stop them,” the supermarket manager went on, her bright orange badge glinting down at us. It told us her name was Onioke Samuels. “Thank you!”
“Well done, kids,” shouted the old man who had stood in front of me to protect me from the van. He walked up and gave me a pat on the back. “You were so brave! They would have driven away if it weren’t for you!”
From somewhere at the back of the crowd, someone cried out, “Heroes! Those kids are heroes!” and began to clap loudly.
And before we knew what was happening, it seemed everyone in the whole car park was clapping and shouting “HEROES!” at us too.
Ashley jumped up and down inside the trolley excitedly as Krish turned bright red. Harriet waved at everyone like a queen and took off her hat to give them a bow.
“Kids, come with me, please,” said a police officer as he began to steer me through the crowd and back towards the supermarket. “We’ve got some questions to ask you all.”
For the rest of the morning, the police and the supermarket manager and then all our parents asked us what felt like a thousand questions.
At first Harriet’s mum and then Krish’s mum and dad and then my mum were furious that we had sneaked out of Harriet’s house in secret. They had already been worried because Harriet’s sister had found us missing, and when they were called by the police, they had felt sick.
They all said they were going to ground us for the rest of our lives. But when they found out we had wanted to catch the thieves because everyone at Breakfast Club was starving, and that we had spent days and weeks spying on the trolleys and training and planning our stake-out, they all agreed that maybe they didn’t need to ground us for that long after all.
Mum decided not to go back to work that day, and when we got home, she made me and Ashley two big cups of hot chocolate and asked us to tell her everything. Ashley pretended the trolley had turned into a rocket ship and that she had thrown millions of sweets at the thieves. But I told Mum the truth. And about how I never wanted the food bank to ever be empty again, and how I never wanted me or Lavinia or Kerry or anyone from Breakfast Club to have to have holes in their stomachs all the time.
Mum didn’t say anything. But I knew she was thinking of lots of things she couldn’t find the right words for.
*
The next day, everything went back to normal. It was a normal, boring Sunday, where I had to do homework and Ashley had to have the Sunday bath she always hated, and we all watched lots of telly.
But then on Monday morning, everything started to change.
First, a whole hour before I had to leave for school, the doorbell rang.
When Mum opened the door, a delivery man was standing in front of her with a giant basket of food tied with the most giant orange ribbon she had ever seen.
The basket was filled with every kind of food you could ever imagine – biscuits and popcorn and crisps and sweets and fruits and cheeses and breads and bananas and … chocolate muffins!
“Who’s it from?” I asked when Mum had screamed and made me and Ashley wake up and run to the front door too.
“Santa!” cried out Ashley.
But Mum shook her head. There was a small card tied to the basket, which Mum opened and showed me. “Read it, Nelson …”
Inside the card, in scratchy writing, were the words:
Dear Nelson and Ashley,
Thank you for catching the trolley thieves! We and all the food banks we support are eternally grateful.
Love from everyone at Gladstores XXX
“And here,” said the delivery man, smiling as he pulled something else from his back pocket and held it out to me. “This is for you too.”
He handed me a folded-up newspaper.
I opened it – and gasped. There on the front page, above a huge picture of Noah Equiano, the best footballer in the world, was a giant headline that read:
SUPERMARKET TROLLEY GANG BUSTED IN FOOD BANK HEIST!
NOAH EQUIANO TAKES ACTION AFTER CHILDREN STOP DONATION THIEVES
I stared at Mum. She stared back and then gave me a hug so big I thought I could hear my bones creak.
After the delivery man left and we all ate the best breakfast any of us could ever remember eating, Mum read the newspaper out loud to me and Ashley. It told us that the man and woman we stopped had been part of a huge gang who had filled three huge warehouses with food stolen from lots of different supermarkets. They had been swapping donation trolleys with emptier trolleys from supermarkets for months, and then selling the food they had bought to smaller shops.
“The game is now over for the food bank robbers. All twenty-three members of their shameless gang are being questioned by the police,” finished Mum. “Food banks nationwide are safe again.”
“Good!” I said, feeling my insides swell up with pride.
Putting the newspaper down, Mum reached out and hugged me and Ashley again.
“Oh! I am so proud of my two little heroes,” Mum whispered, before telling us to get ready quickly for school. But before I left the kitchen table, I stared at Mum’s face for just as long as I could. I had nearly forgotten what it felt like to see Mum smiling her real smile. And I didn’t ever want to forget it.
Then, at school, things got even better.
In Assembly, the Breakfast Club and everyone else gave me and Harriet and Krish and even Ashley a huge round of applause, and Mrs Bell called us up onto the stage to get some special certificates for bravery and determination!
And then something happened that was so amazing and so spectacular that I thought I had to be dreaming.
Because it wasn’t Mrs Bell who gave us our certificates. Instead, she told the school that a very special guest wanted to do that and pointed to the back of the hall.
Mr Ramjit and Maureen the dinner lady gave everyone a wave and threw open the hall doors.
And there he was!
Noah Equiano – the REAL Noah Equiano!
The school burst into cheers as everyone got to their feet, and Krish screamed, “NO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!”
The real Noah Equiano came jogging up to the stage, waving at everyone and making Harriet hiccup so badly she had to clamp her hands over her mouth to make it stop.
It turned out that Noah Equiano hadn’t come to our school just to give me and Krish and Harriet and Ashley a certificate. He had come to tell us that he had been a member of the Breakfast Club and the Free School Meals Club too. And that because we had been so brave and had helped hundreds of food banks by stopping the thi
eves, he wanted to invite us to Parliament so that we could help every child in the country get the food they needed to keep them strong and healthy and have an equal chance to do all the things they wanted to do – not just at school but after they finished school too.
And after Harriet stopped hiccupping, and Krish stopped silently screaming, and I could speak again, we all shouted, “YES!!”
Because who would say no to going on an adventure with The Equaliser to make sure that no one like me, or Ashley, or anyone at the Breakfast Club ever went to bed hungry again? Not anyone I can think of.
Except for, maybe, a thief.
Acknowledgements
This story only came into existence because of Marcus Rashford’s tireless work to highlight the issue of food poverty and tackle those responsible. Marcus, you are a hero of our times: thank you for being the voice too many children have needed for far too long.
We are incredibly lucky to not only have heroes like Marcus Rashford but also s/heroes like Dame Emma Thompson and Jack Monroe righting wrongs and calling out government failures too. In addition, there is a hidden army of amazing hearts working in food banks and breakfast clubs every single day to help keep our little ones going. You are, each of you, stupendous.
I am deeply grateful to Ailsa Bathgate and the Barrington Stoke team for gifting me the space to create this story, and eternally thankful to the wondrous staff of Trussell Trust Food Banks, the Greggs Foundation Breakfast Club Programme, Sainsburys and Tesco for opening my eyes yet further as to what true and endless generosity looks like.
A percentage of all royalties earned from the sale of this book will be going towards Trussell Trust Food Banks, the Greggs Foundation Breakfast Club Programme and selected grassroots food bank charities. So to you, the wonderful reader of this story, thank you for helping Nelson’s adventures and efforts go on.
What are food banks?
DID YOU KNOW? In the UK today, over 8 million people are struggling with food poverty. Just like Nelson and his family.
In the story, Nelson’s mum works as a nurse, but at the end of some months she just doesn’t have enough money to buy all the things that her family needs. So they have to visit a food bank for help.
Food banks provide emergency food to people who really need it. Thousands of very kind people donate to food banks at different places such as supermarkets, schools, churches, doctors’ surgeries and some businesses too, every single day. And lots of supermarkets and local shops also donate millions of pounds’ worth of food every year to help food banks too.
That’s why food banks are incredibly special – they are made up entirely of gifts given by people wanting to help other people.
If you would like to learn more about food banks and how they help children like Nelson, have a look at www.trusselltrust.org or www.fareshare.org.uk.
Why do people need to use food banks?
That’s a very good question!
The UK is a very wealthy country – the sixth richest country in the world according to some measurements. And we live in a country where there is lots of food. So much in fact that 6.7 million tonnes of food (that’s over £10 billion worth of food!) goes to waste in the UK every year! But the rate of food poverty in the UK is among the highest in Europe.
So why are so many people struggling?
Food poverty is part of a much bigger problem. Millions of families in the UK are struggling to pay their rent or bills for water and fuel. They may be waiting for the government to act faster to help them; they may be unable to find a well-paid job or, like Nelson’s mum, they might have a landlord who keeps increasing their rent and, as a result, they may be in debt. Because of problems like these, there is often not enough money to cover every cost, even when all the grown-ups in a home are working.
This is a situation that can happen to anyone, and people who need to use food banks should never feel ashamed because they need help. It’s actually one of the bravest things in the world to do: to ask for help when you need it.
What are breakfast clubs?
As the name suggests, breakfast clubs are … clubs which serve breakfast! Yum!
They often open an hour before school starts, and most are run in schools and overseen by lovely teachers, teaching assistants, catering staff and volunteers.
As you may have heard, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”! It is, after all, the meal that breaks your night’s fast (hence the name) and gives your body the energy it needs to get going for the day ahead.
But for many of us, breakfast becomes a missed meal – usually because everyone is in a rush to get out of the door! For many parents/guardians who work, there simply isn’t time to get breakfast ready for everyone. And for those who are having a tough week and struggling with food poverty, there may not be enough food in the house to provide a nutritious breakfast.
That’s why breakfast clubs are probably one of the best kinds of clubs around. They help parents/guardians stop worrying, and they give everyone a chance to start the day with a full tummy. If you would like to learn more about breakfast clubs, or if your school would like help setting one up, have a look at www.greggsfoundation.org.uk/breakfast-clubs.
Three ways you can help food banks and breakfast clubs
DID YOU KNOW? While food banks may have “food” in the title, they don’t just give things to eat and drink to the people they help. They also give other essential items like toiletries, tampons, nappies and baby food too. And lots of breakfast clubs don’t only provide breakfast, they provide games, space and tools for children and young people to do their homework before school starts.
Here are three ways you can help your local food banks and your school too:
1. Find out what they need
In order to give people what they need, it’s better to ask and know for sure rather than make a guess. This also stops the creation of extra food waste.
For food banks: check out the Trussell Trust website and type in your postcode. This will help you find your nearest food bank as well as learn all about what food and non-food donations they need.
For breakfast clubs: ask your head teacher if there is anything that is needed (games, books, maybe even computers) that you can donate or help raise funds for.
2. Help tackle “Holiday Hunger”
During the school holidays when there are no free school meals and fewer breakfast clubs available, many families find it even more difficult to access the food they need. Lots of businesses, charities and faith groups (from cafes and supermarkets to community centres, churches, mosques and temples) work even harder at these times to raise donations and distribute help to local families. There is now a map of lots of these organisations at www.endchildfoodpoverty.org/help. Use it to find any help you may need, or to find out how you can help them in their work.
3. Join the #EndChildFoodPoverty campaign at www.endchildfoodpoverty.org!
On this site, you will find the latest actions being taken to encourage the UK government to help end food poverty, as well as lots of facts and tips on how to help too.
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Copyright
First published in 2021 in Great Britain by
Barrington Stoke Ltd
18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7LP
This ebook edition first published in 2021
www.barringtonstoke.co.uk
Text © 2021 Onjali Q. Raúf
Illustrations © 2021 Elisa Paganelli
The moral right of Onjali Q. Raúf and Elisa Paganelli to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this public
ation may be reproduced in whole or in any part in any form without the written permission of the publisher
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eISBN: 978–1–80090–067–7
The Great (Food) Bank Heist Page 4
