The Oak Harbor School District started offering hot breakfasts in most elementary schools last school year.

As a result, nearly 91,000 meals were sold during the 2005-2006 school year.

“The breakfast program really got going last year,” said David Connors, school district food service director. The breakfast numbers were bolstered by students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.

Numbers show that 65,561 breakfast meals served last school year stem from students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. The school district receives a reimbursement from the state and federal governments for students who receive free and reduced lunches.

Connors said the breakfast program is cost-neutral, meaning the money brought in only covers the costs to offer the program. He added it takes, on average, 75 students per day for the breakfast program to break even.

The Oak Harbor School District is required to offer breakfasts in schools where at least 40 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced price lunches. Every elementary school except Broad View and Hillcrest elementary participates in the breakfast program.

For lunch, the school district served nearly 698,000 meals in Oak Harbor schools, which is a one percent increase from the previous year.

The lunch and breakfast programs brought in $1.5 million, which is a seven percent increase from the previous year. The program spent $1.4 million, which is only $589 more than the previous year.

The food service program shows a $104,000 positive balance. That money will go toward paying a bond the school district took out to help pay for equipment and remodeling work when the program started after voters approved a levy in 2001 to start the program.

Money will also be used toward capital projects for food service. The most pressing need is to construct storage space for cafeteria tables at Hillcrest and Crescent Harbor elementary schools.