PARENTS have been disappointed by the decision of Moulsham Junior School to axe hot lunches for a year.
The school told parents their children would be offered cold packed lunches from next month until the construction of a new kitchen in January 2016, after Moulsham Infants cancelled its contract to cook the junior school's meals.
The new kitchen is to be constructed as part of the school's expansion, which will also see it take on additional pupils, and the school said it would provide nutritious cold food until then.
The letter, sent out earlier this month, added that the idea of using an external provider for the meals, which would cost parents £2.50, had been deemed too expensive.
But many parents of pupils at the Princes Road, Chelmsford, school are unhappy with the decision.
Poppy Wright, 33, said: "One parent has already told me how much of a strain it will put on her. I don't understand how a school of that size can withdraw hot meals."
But headteacher Marie Staley, who has been at the school for just ten weeks, said there had been no alternative.
She added: "Only seven per cent of children here have free school meals, and the uptake of hot dinners is only 29 per cent.
"I am a big advocate of school dinners.
"It's certainly not a decision we came to lightly, but we explored so many other avenues and none of them worked.
"It may be the case that it is the only hot meal some children have a day, I couldn't know, but I have had parents say they don't have time to cook a hot meal because they are taking their kids to clubs and so on, but that is a family choice."
The large school has no kitchen, something the expansion next year will remedy, and previously relied on Moulsham Infants School to prepare its hot dinners.
However, the infants' school was forced to cancel its contract with the juniors after the Government's mandate to provide free lunches to under-sevens saw its intake of lunches go from 70 to more than 200 pupils.
One parent, who did not want to be named, told the Chronicle: "The school hasn't consulted with parents at all on this. We are just being told hot meals will stop next term and have to get on with it.
"Packed lunches just aren't a suitable alternative for some children, but the school has just gone with the option that works best for it.
"There is so much upheaval planned already to make way for the extra pupils that the school has agreed to take on and it is clear it is struggling to provide for the students it already has."
Mrs Wright added: "There seems to be no discussion or negotiation.
"Many of the parents I have spoken to about this would have been happy to pay the extra."
But Mrs Staley explained the school had been left with no choice.
She said: "Both companies that offered to provide meals for £2.50 withdrew. If they had agreed to it, we would have asked parents if they wanted to pay that much.
"Even if they had said no, we would have looked at subsidising it, but because it wasn't viable, there was nothing to consult on."
