Children stop eating school meals after 14 per cent increase in prices

Parents in South London are refusing to pay for school meals after prices increased by 14 per cent, new figures suggest.

Lewisham council said it could make £40,000 less than expected because of the drop in numbers opting for a hot lunch.

It comes after Jamie Oliver warned that the improvements made as a result of his school dinner revolution are in danger of unravelling.

Lewisham council had hoped to make £260,000 from the increase. But some parents chose not to pay for meals in Lewisham's primary schools when prices jumped by 20p a day to £1.60 in April.

Details are contained in a report which blames the drop on "a combination of the wider economic factors and the recent price increases."

Nationally the number of children eating school meals increased after Channel 4's 2005 series Jamie's School Dinners. In 2008 and 2009 strict nutritional guidelines were made compulsory in schools.

But the chef yesterday accused the government of putting the changes at risk. Education Secretary Michael Gove has ended a school lunch grant as a separate source of funding and exempted academies from nutritional standards.

Mr Oliver said: "I would love to believe that Mr Gove has school food high on the agenda, but I've not heard anything."