Cheap breakfast for 1,000 won ($0.77) wasn't enough for hungry university students, and some universities are expanding the program to include lunch and dinner.

On It'sMe, a meal ticket purchasing app, 1,000-won lunch meal tickets at Kyung Hee University's cafeteria sold out two minutes after they went on sale at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday.

The 1,000-won lunch came with beef doenjang jjigae, fermented soybean soup, rice, kimchi and other side dishes.

With some meal tickets also available for purchase at the cafeteria, around 40 students lined up in front of the cafeteria's kiosks around 11:40 a.m.

In just a few minutes, however, an employee of the cafeteria had to tell the students in line that they had to buy regularly-priced meal tickets as all 1,000-won lunch tickets were sold out.

Without the special discount, lunch at the university cafeteria costs 5,500 to 7,000 won.

Kyung Hee University is one of the schools that started offering 1,000-won lunch at its student cafeterias starting Nov. 13.

The university, at the Cheongwoon Building cafeteria on its Seoul campus, offers 1,000-won lunch tickets to 500 students per day every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until Dec. 20.

At its Global Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi, the 1,000-won lunch is offered at the Student Center on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday until Dec. 21 and at the Second Dormitory cafeteria on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday until the same date. The 1,000-won lunch is offered to only 400 students a day.

Cheaper student meals used to be only offered for breakfast, with 41 universities participating in the 1,000-won breakfast program in the spring semester this year after getting funding from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. With the ministry offering funding to more universities, there are currently 145 universities that offer cheap breakfast.

Receiving positive student responses, universities are also offering cheap meals for lunch and dinner so more students can eat affordable meals throughout the day.

"I like the lunch discounts because, last semester's 1,000-won breakfast, I would have to come very early in the morning, even before my classes started, to have those meals," Park Jung-yoon, a Kyung Hee University student, said. "I try to have the 1,000-won lunch as much as I can because it's cheap, but it's hard to get the tickets because it's really popular."

Some schools also offer cheap dinners for students.

Since October, Chungbuk National University has offered dinner for 2,000 won at its student cafeteria on weekdays.

It's one of the schools offering cheap breakfast and lunch.

A total of 300 students per day are eligible for the 1,000-won breakfast, and another 300 per day can enjoy the 2,000-won dinner, both until Dec. 21.

Although students welcome cheaper meals, funding is necessary to keep the program going.

According to Kyung Hee University, its 1,000-won lunch is priced at 5,500 won. The university offers a 4,500 won subsidy per meal, and the funding comes entirely from alumi donations.

This semester's meals are funded by alumni such as Seohee Construction President Lee Bong-kwan, Standard Chartered Bank Korea CEO Park Jong-bok and Korea Real Estate Investment & Trust President Cha Jeong-hoon.

Chungbuk National University also operates the program with funding from the local government and faculty.

NongHyup Bank's North Chungcheong office donated 100 20-kilogram (44-pound) bags of rice to the university on Nov. 9 to use for rice served in the 2,000-won dinner. This is the bank's second donation to the university. It first donated 230 bags of rice in May.

The university's professors' association also pitched in, donating 5.2 million won for the program on Nov. 10.

Being reliant on donations also makes it unclear if the cheaper meals will continue to exist next year.

Both Kyung Hee University and Chungbuk National University's programs run until the end of this semester, with most universities with 1,000-won breakfast programs also running the program only until this semester.

According to a survey of 76 universities offering 1,000-won meals to students announced in October, 26 universities, or 34 percent, said they will either downsize the number of meals offered or stop the program if the government funding remained the same.

Currently, the 145 universities that offer 1,000-won breakfast get funding of 1,000 won per meal from the Agricultural Ministry.

A total of 32 universities said they need 2,000 won of funding per meal to continue the program, and another 32 said they need funding of 3,000 won per meal. Five said they needed 4,000 won, and four said 5,000 won.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]