A MOTHER with four children says officials are literally taking food out of the mouths of desperate families.

Jackie Lo, 37, from Rennie Close, Downley, says she visits the Family Centre in Desborough Road, High Wycombe, once a week with her two youngest children Dylan, five, and Macauley, two, where they can relate to other families in the same situation and get a subsidised meal.

The centre is open from 9am until 2.30pm Monday to Friday and Miss Lo says it provides a lifeline for families and is the only way some parents can guarantee a meal for their children that day.

Buckinghamshire County Council pays £27,000 a year towards the meals at Desborough Road Family Centre, £4,300 of which is recovered.

But they are no longer prepared to finance the food because of changes in the way the centre is run.

Castlefield Family Centre, Laburnum Road, Castlefield, and a centre in Aylesbury will also lose their meals when the £74,000 needed to fund all three centres is withdrawn.

Miss Lo said: "Mothers on their own with young children go there. The staff were outraged and the parents are livid.

"The council may think it is so little but it means a lot for some people."

A spokesman for the county council said: "Changes are being made to the style of services offered at Buckinghamshire County Council's family centres.

"Instead of attending the centres for whole days families will be asked to take part in morning or afternoon sessions.

"This means that staff at family centres will be able to work with more families to assess what kind of help and support is needed in the best interests of the children.

"Because families will be attending morning or afternoon sessions it will no longer be necessary to provide a midday meal.

"The council's human resources department has met the five cooks involved and is doing all it can to find other suitable jobs for them with the council."