A pound of fresh ground pork is ~$1.25 and it's 1100 calories.

Throw in all the other stuff to make the swedish meatballs and you are coming out way ahead.

The "poor tax" in processed food is that they are paying double to triple the underlying food cost to have someone else make the food for them.

I'm confident that if you meal prepped Swedish meatballs, you would be able to make something 10x healthier for 1/3 the cost. Even at a "rock bottom" $1.50 per meatball package.