Catering company Chartwells says it's "working on" problems with the government's free school meals system after a second day of chaos across Dorset. 

On Wednesday headteachers were forced to order takeaway pizzas or raid supermarket shelves to feed their pupils after the company paid to provide school lunches failed to deliver.

Some schools received no lunches at all while others received part of their order or were left waiting with no explanation from Chartwells.

And yesterday some schools which DID recieve meals refused to serve them because they were such poor quality.

At Lytchett Minster School, dinner ladies went to local shops to buy fresh food after seeing the chicken tikka masala sent by Chartwells.

In a message to parents headteacher Mr France said: "Upon opening the trays of food the kitchen staff were unhappy that is was acceptable to serve to the children. As such, and to their credit, they bought produce from local shops and prepared it in the time they had left."

One mother at Bearwood school said the meal served to her son was not fit to be given to a dog. Several readers on the Echo's facebook page said their children had come home hungry last night because the meal they had been served wasn't edible.

Some heads have now asked parents to send their children to school with a packed lunch from home until they can be sure the problems are resolved.

And Toni Coombs, Dorset’s cabinet member for education, has demanded Chartwells refund schools that bought food out of their own budgets.

She said: “The introduction of free school meals for all five, six and seven-year-olds across Dorset has not been without its challenges. By next week, the number of schools meals being provided by our contractor, Chartwells, will be around 12,000 – compared to 4,000 last year.

“Although we would have expected some teething issues, we did not expect this level of disruption and have asked Chartwells to refund every school that has had to buy food out of its own budget.

“Chartwells have assured us they are working to resolve issues at individual schools and we will make sure they fix the problem as soon as possible. 

“I’d like to thank schools, pupils and parents for their patience and understanding while the matter is resolved.”

Ferndown town councillor Debbie Marlow said: “I’m shocked at the unprofessional way Chartwells have conducted themselves. Ferndown First School has coped remarkably well, they’ve done their absolute best.”

Vicky Wales, head of children, young people and learning at the Borough of Poole, confirmed seven out of the 11 Poole schools that are part of the Chartwell contract, experienced problems on the first day of term. She said they were in frequent contact with the company, which has now put additional measures in place.

Food contractor Chartwells won a four-year contract to provide around 11,000 meals a day to Dorset, Poole and Bournemouth schools.

Last night they said: “We take our commitment to service delivery very seriously and we have been preparing for the introduction of universal free school meals for a number of months, including establishing a local kitchen facility to deliver meals to schools without kitchens.

“Following some unexpected operational issues at the start of this term, there have been some initial challenges in the delivery of meals to some schools in the area. We understand the inconvenience this has caused and we are working with each of these schools to resolve this matter as soon as possible.

"We are focused on providing great quality, nutritious meals to schools across Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole and we are liaising with the council to ensure we rectify this situation quickly and effectively.”