The way to eat cheap is to have 49 friends. Costs are much lower if you buy a lot of something. Soup kitchens as they are called in the US (and elsewhere?) do this. There are self sustaing ones in the US that charge $1 for a meal which is prepared by those who eat there. As a community center $1 for a meal is doable. And with the pound being worth more than the dollar, one should be able to do that on a 1GBP as well.