A special order came up shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday at the Jubilee Cafe, a program that serves a free, hot breakfast two mornings per week to anyone who needs it.

“This is our hundred-thousandth meal,” shouted director Clark Keffer as he approached a table and delivered a plate full of eggs, sausage and apple-cinnamon pancakes to Jerry Nyhoff.

Nyhoff, who’s been eating at the Jubilee regularly for the past nine years, was grateful.

“Really good,” he said after he finished eating.” Nothing says love like apple-cinnamon pancakes.”

The cafe has been running since October 1994, most recently in the basement of First United Methodist Church, 946 Vt. An all-volunteer staff serves breakfast at 7 a.m. Tuesdays and Fridays in a restaurant-like atmosphere – complete with servers, menus, flowers on the table, and the occasional live piano music in the background.

“It gives you a feeling of being important, you might say,” said Raleigh Worthington, 53, a regular customer. “I feel better coming in here than I do going into a restaurant where you actually pay. … I think it’s the fact that we actually get to order what we want. We don’t have to go through a line.”

Tuesday’s milestone was significant to Keffer in part because of the uncertainty the program has faced in the past.

For roughly its first 10 years, it was supported by Kansas University’s Episcopal campus ministry, but in 2005 the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas eliminated the job of Joe Alford, who co-founded the cafe.

“We were kind of orphaned,” Keffer said. “Now, First UMC has adopted us.”

On a typical day, the cafe serves about 125 breakfasts. Keffer said the credit for the program’s survival goes to KU students, who regularly volunteer as part of course work or to earn community-service hours.

“Every Tuesday and Friday morning, I see the ones who actually care and are willing to go above and beyond just to get out and help the community,” Keffer said. “Most of them aren’t even from around here.”

KU junior Paige Blair, one of the student coordinators for the cafe, said students gain a broader view of life in Lawrence and often strike up friendships with their customers. She said working at the cafe is about “knowing other people’s life stories besides other white, middle-class kids that came from suburban backgrounds.”

The 100,000th plate was served on a hard plate, not a paper plate, to symbolize a new dishwasher bought for the cafe by the KU Student Senate. It will save the cafe the expense of buying paper plates and Styrofoam cups, but Keffer said the program still needs to raise money. It recently started a “Dinner for Breakfast” fundraiser at 5 p.m. every Wednesday at the church. For $5, people can buy an all-you-can-eat breakfast that includes fare similar to what’s on the weekday menus.