A council is looking at closing its catering service, meaning schools relying on it would have to make their own meal arrangements.
Cheshire East Council's service, called Fresh, currently provides lunches and snacks to 87 schools, and employs about 270 people.
It used to operate at a profit, but over recent years there has been a shortfall between income and expenditure, so the local authority has been subsidising it.
Councillors are being presented with five options for the service, with officers recommending it should cease by the end of December 2024.
Schools across the borough have different catering arrangements in place: some use the council's service, while others provide their own school lunches or use another third party provider.
The price the council charges schools for meals it provides increased in January to £2.53 for a free school meal. Paid meals increased by 15%
But it is concerned the increased charge will not support the catering service's long-term viability.
It estimates if it is to continue running the service without subsidising it, it would need to charge an average of £3.15 per meal from April.
This means that if free school meals were charged at the existing rate of funding provided by the government of £2.53, then paid meals would need to rise to more than £4 per child.
