Here is how the rule on meals reads:
 
16.12 BENEFITS, GIFTS AND SERVICES
 16.12.1 Permissible
  16.12.1.6 Occasional Meals.  A student-athlete or the entire team in
  a sport may receive an occasional family home meal from an
  institutional staff member or representative of athletics interests
  under the following conditions:
  (a) The meal must be provided in an individual's home (as opposed to
      a restaurant) and may be catered;
  (b) Meals must be restricted to infrequent and special occasions;
  ...
 
Note that this is how extra benefits are defined:
 
 16.02.3 Extra Benefit.  An extra benefit is any special arrangement
 by an institutional employee or a representative of the institution's
 athletics interests to provide a student-athlete or the
 student-athlete's relative or friend a benefit not expressly
 authorized by NCAA legislation.  Receipt of a benefit by
 student-athletes or their relatives or friends is not a violation of
 NCAA legislation if it is demonstrated that the same benefit is
 generally available to the institution's students or their relatives
 or friends or to a particular segment of the student body (e.g.,
 foreign students, minority students) determined on a basis unrelated
 to athletics ability.
 
Also note that according to 13.02.11, a "representative of athletics
interests" can include anyone who either is somehow involved in
promoting the institution's athletics programs or who has made
financial contributions to the athletics department or to an athletics
booster organization of that institution (paraphrased).
 
By that definition, many of us here can be considered to be a
"representative of athletics interests", especially if you are a
member of an organization like "Friends of State U Hockey" and/or
contribute to that organization.
 
The question is, if you provide a SA a benefit like a free meal
because you are friends with him/her and not strictly because of the
SA's athletics involvement, are you in violation of the rules?
 
I can't claim to be an expert on this topic, so I will leave this to
those who are more familiar with the rules than me.  On the one hand,
it is not a benefit provided to a SA because of athletics.  But on the
other, the rules also state clearly that any benefits not expressly
authorized are forbidden.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
>>> Merrimack softball - 1994: 45-4/NC$$ DivII Champions              <<<
>>>  1995: 39-9/NC$$ Northeast Regional Champions & on to the Final 6 <<<