The days of second cheap lunches in Hawai'i public schools are over.

Last school year, students buying extra lunches for themselves and friends racked up $2 million in nonreimbursable costs.

The Department of Education can only get a subsidy from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the first lunch each student buys, so this year not only are regular lunch prices rising from $1 to $1.25, the days of second full lunches at discount prices are over.

Many schools have moved from cash and lunch tickets to ID cards that are preloaded with lunch money and can be swiped until all the money is spent.

It means that a hungry student can get extra food, but it also means that students can treat other kids to lunch, sometimes swiping their cards up to five times a day.

"That was running rampant through the state," said Glenna Owens, director of the school food services branch. "How are we going to curb it and still allow for those students who are truly hungry?"

Under the new policy, students can get a second helping of the main entree for $1.25 — with no extra milk, vegetables or starch. Any additional lunches would be sold at market value — $4 each.

The original plan was to make all additional food $4, but the department compromised when people complained that for some students, the meals students have at school may be their only nutritious food for the day.

"We've made a concession," Owens said. "(The main entree) is what the kids who are hungry want. They just want to bulk up their first meal.

"The concession has allowed the department to keep food costs in line," she said.

Iris Fujimoto, cafeteria manager at Anuenue School, said at most she'll see three students purchasing double lunches on any given day.

"It's a possibility that friends can buy for other students," she said. "We don't really ask that."

Kids who forget their ID cards can give the cashier a personal identification number, and "kids have used other kids' pin numbers," Fujimoto said.

However, the computer program used for lunch sales does track how many lunches students are buying. "If you use the card again, there's a prompt screen that asks if it's OK to serve another meal," she said.

As for the hunger issue, Fujimoto pointed out that needy students are guaranteed free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches every day. "Those kids are pretty well covered," she said. "We haven't had a problem where the kids go without a meal here."

Fujimoto said she understands the justification for charging market price for the additional lunches. "If you're losing 'X' dollars per year, it's coming out of your budget. We cannot recover the costs for the second meals and basically the program has been successful because we have state and federal subsidies for each meal we sell."

Without the subsidies, the school lunch program will eventually be affected, Fujimoto said.

"We would need to be more stringent on food costs or not get new equipment or things like that," she said.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.