A mum says her daughter is forced to eat the exact same lunch almost every day because her school doesn't offer gluten-free options.
Laura Foley, 33, said her daughter Elsie-Leigh is left eating fruit for dessert every day while her classmates get tasty cakes and pastries, because the company won't stock gluten-free products.
Elsie, 10, has a wheat allergy and suffers severe eczema if she eats gluten, so must maintain a particular diet.
Laura said that Harrison Catering company, which provides lunch for pupils at Elmwood Junior School in Croydon, south London, have left her daughter to feeling 'different' and excluded, reports MyLondon.
"Every day the other kids are having sponge cake, chocolate shortbread, flapjacks, apple crumble. Meanwhile each and every lunchtime she just gets fruit for dessert because they won't buy anything she can have," Laura said.
Elsie, now in Year Six, has been a pupil premium child throughout her time at Elmwood - meaning she gets free school meals.
However, in the last few years Laura said Elsie has often been coming home hungry due to a lack of options for her.
"When the catering company took over at the school I asked what gluten-free products they offer and they told me they don't stock many gluten-free products because they're not cost efficient. I asked what she can have and they told me they can give her a jacket potato," Laura explained.
She added: "It was ok for the first six to eight months then a new menu came out. There was hardly anything on it she could eat. Her diet soon became really repetitive and exclusively vegetarian because the meat the school stocked came pre-seasoned with a gluten product. One week she had jacket and beans for three of the five days. It's just not fair."
Laura said she couldn't fault the school at all, but that the catering company they had employed were proving to be very stubborn as she's been locked in a constant battle to broaden her daughter's diet at school.
"She's been left out, they have a duty to accommodate for her but at the moment she's sitting there eating repetitive meals with fruit for dessert while what the other kids have is much better," Laura said.
The Mirror has contacted the Harrison Catering company and Elmwood Junior School for a comment.
