Many people are familiar with TOMS shoe company, which donates a pair of shoes for every one purchased. Now, a researcher in the Triangle is trying a similar business model with frozen meals.

Alice Ammerman is a nutrition professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at UNC-Chapel Hill. She’s piloting a program, called Good Bowls, that provides low-income people access to affordable frozen meals made with healthy ingredients.

“The bowls are made with a lot of sweet potatoes, collard greens and chicken. Things that are familiar to people who live in North Carolina,” Ammerman said.

Bowl prices are $4.99 with the option of paying $2 more or $2 less, depending on your economic situation. Selling more food bowls at the higher price makes more food bowls available at the lower price in low-income areas.

The bowls can be purchased with SNAP food benefits. Convenience stores in low-income areas identified as food deserts will carry only subsidized bowls at $2.99.

The subsidized, standard-price and higher-priced bowls are available at premium grocery stores like Weaver Street Market and Durham Food Co-op.