Roy Mathias sat in the basement of First United Methodist Church Friday morning, a breakfast fit for a king before him.

Biscuits and gravy. Hash browns. Eggs, over easy. Sausage. Pancakes. Fruit Loops. Orange juice. Milk.

Mathias is homeless. He wouldn’t be able to pay for such a breakfast on his own. And he’s grateful.

“It’s a pretty good hot breakfast,” he said. “It helps you out quite a bit.”

Jubilee Cafe, run by Kansas University students, has been serving up the twice-a-week free breakfast for eight years. But the growing number of poor and homeless in Lawrence has combined with diminishing resources to squeeze the program.

The Rev. Joe Alford said Jubilee Cafe may have to quit serving breakfast during the summer if the organization couldn’t raise at least $3,000.

“We thought we were going to close down during the summer,” Alford, who oversees the program, said Friday. “Now we’ve got money to get us through mid-July. That’s terrifying, though, because students won’t come back until August and they don’t start fund-raising until September.”

The Jubilee Cafe serves breakfast twice a week to people in Lawrence who are homeless or who need a hot meal. The cafe at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vt., is short of funds and may have to close in mid-July.

Jubilee Cafe is serving 140 people at each breakfast, from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. Tuesday and Friday. That’s double the number it was serving two years ago. The program moved from Trinity Episcopal Church in January 2002 to accommodate the larger crowds.

“We started it for homeless people,” Alford said. “But because of the economy, there’s a lot of people who are using it to stretch their dollars.”

Just as the guest ranks were growing, though, Jubilee Cafe lost funding. A grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t come through this year, dropping overall grant funding for Jubilee from $8,000 in 2002 to $2,500 this year.

Benedict Kemmerer, a KU student who volunteers with Jubilee, said the organization may start a “Friends of Jubilee” fund-raising group of community residents to supplement the students’ efforts.

“Part of our strength is everything is done by students,” he said. “But with fund-raising, it turns out to be a liability.”

Jubilee offers its guests sit-down service, like a restaurant. Volunteers take orders and deliver the meals to the tables.

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“We give them a menu choice,” Alford said. “It may be the only choice they have all day.”

Mathias appreciates the meal, and the service.

“You’re around people, KU students, and you get to talk to them quite a bit,” he said. “It makes you feel like somebody cares.”