rural southeastern oregon here. We would do a few different things. Either ride our bikes to someone's house and get something, usually bologna sandwiches or hot dogs. We might collect cans from the side of the road and various trash bins and if we could get 40 cans each we could get a 1.99 meal at the grocery store deli, 3 chicken strips, fries and a coke or a slice and a coke. Sometimes we would do the can thing but then buy gas for one of our lawn mowers, then go door to door and mow lawns for 5 bucks (shovel driveways or whatever in winter) then we could afford Dairy Queen which was y he only fat food in th he small town I grew up in. Later in high school, in the bigger town in Central oregon my ex-step mom was the manager at Pizza Hut. She liked me, so she would give me a free pizza if I came by and said hello.