An English mother says her 8-year-old daughter was fed bread and water and an overripe banana at school because she did not have her lunch money.

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Michelle Williams told the Daily Mail she got a telephone call from Castle Hill Primary School in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, and promised to bring the 3.50-pound (almost $7) fee. But by the time she got there she found her daughter had already been forced to sit with friends while they ate hot meals and she chewed on bread.

"I was quite upset," Courtney Williams said. "I had to sit and watch everyone else eat proper meals and I just had some bread and an old banana with a black skin."

Michelle Williams, a single mother, has applied for free meals for her daughter, but the application is still being processed, the newspaper said.