The Sacred Meal

Sometimes called "Cakes and Wine" or "Cakes and Ale," the Sacred Meal is like the Contemporary Pagan version of the Eucharistic. Almost all religions have a sacred meal. Food is brought before the Divine and blessed then consumed. Sometimes the idea is that the god or spirit consumes the essence of the food and then replaces that essence with a blessing.
In Contemporary Paganism we use bread and wine most often, but this isn't always the case. I like to use mead instead of wine when I can. Some use fruits or grains like rice or oats instead of bread.
I learned this from Traditional Wicca, but other denominations have been inspired by other sources. In Traditional Wicca the meal is blessed just after the Divine has been brought down into the bodies of the High Priestess and her High Priest. These two figures bless the wine in a symbolic sexual act, bringing the athame down into the chalice that holds it. As a symbolic act of orgasm the wine is then asperged onto the bread or cakes that sit on top of the altar tile which locks in the blessing. The blessing is then returned in thanks to the gods through libation and then the cup and bread are passed around the coven to be consumed, each member making their own libation before consumption. Whatever works they have gathered for are then carried out with the blessings of the gods within them to empower the works.
In non-traditional Wicca  the sacred meal takes place at the end as an act of grounding out the energies raised during the ritual and libation is often not given.
I prefer to do the meal at the beginning of the ritual and meditate at the end to ground out any unwanted excess energy.
~A. Fox