My cat pesters us for food thanks to neighbours kids. help?

My cat is a 1-year-old neutered male in a neighbourhood with a few other moggies. My neighbours love him to bits and the kids entice him in. The problem is, he now treats their house as his own. At meal times the kids encourage him with bits of food and he now troubles us when we eat. Because of the way the kids encourage him, he'll literally try and take it out of our hands when we eat or try and crawl onto our laps at teatime. He also jumps up on our kitchen counter an steals food he is not entitled to. We can't punish him because he's going to be confused. My neighbours keep telling the kids not to do it but one has significant learning difficulties. Please help. Thanks.