Thousands of children will be left without a hot lunch from today

Ray Nangle, CEO of Nenagh-based primary school lunch provider The Lunch Bag, said the issue can only be solved by consultation with companies providing school lunches. Picture: Patrick Browne

Thousands of children are set to be left without a hot lunch from Monday because suppliers claim changes to the Government’s school meals programme make providing to small schools financially unviable.

More than 2,000 children are understood to be affected after a number of suppliers withdrew from the scheme in recent days because of changes to the procurement criteria.