I'm big into promoting inexpensive healthy food people can prepare easily, but I'm coming from a place of doing this myself. I am saying it as someone who does serve a lot of beans and rice. That politician really ought to share his personal menu for the week and how much he paid for every bite of it. I'm not sure how much 30p is in U.S. money so I can't judge that amount. The other thing is that some people have more time to cook than others. It's a lot harder to cook with dried beans if you have kids and a FT job than if you're retired, a SAHM, etc.