Hundreds of parents are threatened with losing custody of their children over school lunch debt.

The letter was mailed to about a thousand parents in the Wyoming Valley West School District in northeastern Pennsylvania.

It informs them the district can take them to dependency court where they could risk losing their children to foster care under the claim those parents are not providing food for their children.

The school district's attorney rebuffs concerns the letter is threatening, calling it just one option and an effective one.

"Hopefully that gets their attention and it certainly did didn't it?," said Charles Coslett, school district solicitor. "I mean if you think about it you're here this morning because some parent's crying foul over he or she doesn't want to pay a debt. A debt attributed to feeding their kids. How shameful!"

School board members, meanwhile, are not happy with the move.