Alban Church of England Academy in Bedfordshire has said hundreds of parents fail to give their children dinner money (£2.10) or a packed lunch each month, which forces the school to pay for their school dinner instead.
The school then has to chase the money up with the individual parents.
To stop the practice, Alban Academy wrote a letter to parents saying that from Februaru 1st it would no longer pay for children's meals if they had no food, but instead telephone parents asking them to come in urgently with the correct money or a packed lunch.
If the parent would not or could not do this, the school would then give the child bread and butter and a drink.
However it's had to backtrack on the plans after outrage from parents.
In a new letter, head teacher Sue Lourensz said: "Following a number of parental concerns regarding the recent school meals letter, we have decided to re-think our policy and will not be introducing the new system outlined in that letter.
"I apologise if this has caused any offence, this was not our intention.
"The letter itself was intended to explain the situation and trial a policy that has been successfully adopted by other schools."
