As far as I can tell, "meal" (time) and "meal" (flour) have different etymological origins. There was still a difference in spelling in Middle English (mel vs mele), but that distinction was lost in Modern English.[0]

[0] https://www.etymonline.com/word/meal

I can’t believe this usage of “meal” never occurred to me. That’s an amazing bit of trivia.

This is something of all ages I guess. In the Bible (written thousands of years ago) they use 'eating bread' as a synonym for having a meal together.

"Companion" is literally someone you eat bread with: "co" or "com" is together ("community") and "pan" is bread.

I will add Spanish ”compartir”, to share.

I've heard it as "breaking bread." I like the phrase. But yeah, it's essentially the same as eating bread, and it clearly refers to having a meal and is not limited to bread.

English use tea for some reason.

That's because in Victorian times the lower classes often couldn't afford a meal at that time and had to subside on some tea and perhaps a slice of bread.

The use of "tea" for that meal remains a class signifier; my paternal grandmother used it, my parents did not (my mother, despite not being a native speaker, presumably is the one who eradicated it from my father's vocabulary), and yet I continue to say unwittingly say it occasionally though I now live in the USA. A vestigial Australianism in my case

It's definitely "non-U" in the UK, though that whole world is mostly gone.