Wichita ? The Lord’s Diner, which serves a free meal every night to anyone who wants one, dished up its 500,000th meal last Sunday.

“We’re no McDonald’s, but that’s still a significant number,” said Wendy Glick, executive director of the nonprofit diner, which opened on Ash Wednesday in 2002.

Organizers originally expected their clientele to be predominantly homeless or on disability, Glick said.

But the bulk of the crowd is families and residents who have jobs but struggle to make ends meet.

They also expected to serve 250 to 300 people a night. But the diner averages 400 people a night these days, and routinely tops 500 late in the month.

August was the busiest month ever at the diner, with more than 13,200 people fed.

The crowds have been so large and consistent that the diner has expanded with an addition that has more space for dry goods and a new freezer.

Several of the same local contractors and suppliers who built the original 10,000-square-foot diner joined forces again to complete the 562-square-foot addition, which will be ready for use on Tuesday.

The diner has an annual budget of about $500,000 and just a handful of paid employees.

Its backbone is the more than 5,000 volunteers who take turns serving the meals and the more than 3,000 individuals, families and companies that have donated food or money.

After dramatic increases in crowd sizes in the diner’s first two years, Glick said, the numbers have steadied in 2005.

Another leap could be coming, however, if changes in Medicaid force residents to choose between buying food or medicine.