Is it permissible to pay the expiation for Ramadan in cash?

Question : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The questioner says: It is known that the default ruling for the expiation of Ramadan for a sick person for whom fasting is difficult is to feed a poor person for each day. But is it permissible to pay the expiation in cash?

Answer : It is not permissible to pay the expiation of feeding in cash. All expiations in which Allah mentioned feeding must be paid in food, whether it is the ransom for shaving the head, the expiation for an oath, the expiation for zihar, or the ransom for fasting. It must be food. But what kind of food? The middle of what people eat. And the middle of what people eat today is what?
It is rice. But how does he feed them? Does he give them rice and meat in their homes for them to cook? Or does he prepare a dinner or lunch and invite them to it?
We say he has the choice between these two. And Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), when he grew old and could not fast, used to prepare bread and oil and invite the poor to it.