Ah the trick is to find a lunch (that has a barb-!) and eat lunch with out the "barb".

Metropolitan Life insurance, at its headquarters (the old met life towers at 23rd and Madison) offered "free lunch" to their employees-- but they had an unpaid lunch hour-- so standard NY hours 9 to 5- left them getting paid for 35 hours a week-- most employees took 1/2 lunches and worked 8:30 to 5 or 9 to 5:30-- to work a 40 hour week.
The company had it figured-- it was cheaper to give lunch than hire more employees (what with benefits, etc.) So "free lunch" allowed employess to volluntarily forgo a lunch "Hour" (theirs by rights, according to NY labor law).

I used to work in the Met life building-- on contract to an other company (xerox) I had a Met life ID badge (but if you looked closely, you could see it said "contractor" -- but the badge got me into the cafeteria-- I got free lunch-- and could still have my "hour". Met life was/ is not the only company to offer free lunch. Many big brokerage houses do to, so that brokers will stay at their desks, and eat in-- (most have "Kitchens" but not eating areas). and Philip Morris does has "discount" lunch. (and the perq of 2 free cartons of cigarettes to every employee/contractor every month!)

In all these cases, Contractors do really get the free lunch.
Philip Morris, has almost every room in there headquarters building on 42nd and Lex (Commander Pershing Square) designated a "smoking area". The Xerox tech rep who was regularly assigned there, had his office (an closet really, about 3 meters by 1.5 meters, and no windows) designated "a Non Smoking Room" .


my other obsession