DURBAN - Pacina Retail is opting out of its deal with KwaZulu-Natal Education.
It was contracted to supply food to schools as part of the School Nutrition Programme.
READ: School feeding scheme | Service provider denies being in breach of contract
But a failure to deliver left millions of children hungry.
The company now wants the department to pay for costs incurred while still contracted.
Teachers union NATU says that demand is simply ridiculous.
"We are not privy to the terms and conditions of the contract between the Department of Education in the province as well as Pacina, but where we sit and observe the quality of the delivery -- or should I say their service -- they were very poor," said NATU's Doctor Ngema.
"We don't see them deriving anything out of this contract, because like I said it was a case of non-delivery or otherwise delivery of food that is inadequate in terms of quality.
Food was rotten, there was no cooking gas in some instances. So actually they were very incompetent if I may say, and we are not supporting anything to say they must be paid for that," he said.