That was me last night. Was hungry and thought about baking a cake at midnight. Will power prevailed!
There is no reason for anyone to go hungry. Food is cheap. Real food, not that over processed packaged junk. Did a quick grocery run this morning and found all sorts of sales. Filled the cart with meat sales. Boneless beef roast $2.99/lb. Jennie-O breakfast sausage $1/lb. 80% ground chuck $2/lb. Summer squash 89 cents/lb. Tomatoes 74 cents/lb. A 3 lb. bag of onions around $2. Lots of buy one get one or even two free items.
One of my favorite "cheap" meals is chicken thighs. About a couple of dollars for a package of four and I sear them in a cast iron skillet about three or four minutes a side and then finish in a 400 degree oven. All you need for seasoning is a little olive oil and pepper. So good.
Typically it is the processed "microwave and serve" foods that rack up the grocery bill. If you need to have a PhD to interpret the ingredients, you are probably eating the wrong foods!