It used to be that meals were tax deductible (which is why Google offered meals) but that got restricted. If a company offers a meal stipend how does that work? Is it just bonus compensation but ear marked for food only?

Depends on the company and how they're paying it out. I've seen food services where a daily credit is issued to your service account (funded by the org), I've seen it as bonus comp, etc. Whichever mechanism is used is usually some sort of crude optimization attempt for what's best for the org and the employee with whatever services and regulatory framework they're working with (wrt to taxes).

Are you in Europe?

I am a US citizen residing in the US with the intent to expatriate to Europe on a remote worker visa, which my employer will support.

Congratulations! Honestly.

I share so others will advocate for this at scale. It’s not some sort of impossible or unreasonable request.