About 20 years ago I lived in the UK for a while and was shocked to see that certain foods were super cheap. I could get a can of generic brand tomatoes for something like 10 cents, I think it worked out to be. I was concerned, wondering what was wrong with it, but there was nothing wrong, it was that the government subsidized a small selection of healthy food for their people. There were 15 cent tins of beans, 10 cent bags of flour, and 15 or 20 cent packets of spaghetti noodles, super cheap, basic staple items, sitting next to the drastically more expensive luxury brands.
The idea was to feed the populace healthy food and to encourage healthy food choices through lowering the cost on basic items that meet that criterion. This way, even poor people could eat something and that something was a generally healthy choice. This is especially beneficial to growing children.
Yes, I know, the money for it all.
Turns out they’d realized it was cheaper to feed people the subsidized food than to deal with all the health problems and lack of productivity from an ailing populace.
I think we ought to consider borrowing this idea.