Education officials in a central Vietnamese city are considering a penalty on five cooks accused of taking away portions of lunch meant for students at a local elementary school.

Food safety inspectors found that the cooks at Tan Lap 1 Elementary School in Nha Trang City allegedly took a considerable amount of beef and soup off the kids’ lunch when they unexpectedly visited it last week.

In particular, they purportedly hid two kilograms of stir-fried beef and a bucket of purple sweet potato soup in a gas storage compartment before distributing meals to the students.

“This is the first time such a case has been uncovered in Nha Trang,” Nguyen Tuong, deputy chief of the Nha Trang Education Board, said. “It is unacceptable and so embarrassing, and those involved must be punished.”

The cooks explained that they forgot the food and accidentally left it in the facility when the inspectors arrived, Phan Tien Loi, Tan Lap 1 principal, told Tuoi Tre.

A Tan Lap 1 vice principal said that parents have complained about their performance since the cooks were recruited in September.

“Parents keep expressing their dissatisfaction with them over the food they cook and protesting insufficient meals,” Mai Hong Van, the vice principal, said.

A mother, Le Thi Cam Thach, once pointed out to a teacher that there was so little food in her child’s lunch.

“I said it point blank that my kid would become malnourished if he continued being fed such a small meal,” Thach said.

Principal Loi said she has reported this apparent dishonesty to local police for investigation, and promised to penalize the cooks if they are proved to have intentionally stashed the foodstuffs.