I really dislike this "us vs them" attitude. Sure the company has free food and sure you can have lunch with your colleagues and sure that's more likely to happen than if you had to find your own lunch but...
- you don't have to have lunch with your colleagues
- you don't have to eat at your desk or work through lunch
- you don't have to have a short lunch
I love the food simply because it's something I don't want to have to think about. I'm certainly not going to make my own lunch. It's not even about the money of going out and buying lunch. I just don't want to think about what I want for lunch today, where should I get it from, when should I go, how long will I have to queue, will it be a pain getting out of and back into the building (eg elevator queues) and so on. I just eat whatever is on offer that day.
So while the company may benefit from you being more likely to eat with your colleagues and that undeniably helps build culture overall, it's also of clear benefit to me and many others.
Why does this have to be a zero-sum game?