Free food helps people focus, as the post says, when you're not figuring out what to eat, mooching out the building then being a bit annoyed that there's a queue and then you're forking over cash, you're not focused or thinking about problems.

You gain purpose when you're sat around a table bonding with teammates and bouncing ideas. The lunchtimes I had as an intern at Google were incredibly valuable to me. They were hours which I didn't consider downtime at all.

I think you're significantly underrating this.