My understanding is that this is between the boarding pass holder and the airline whose name is imprinted on it, that simple.
I had claimed directly from J2 after an inflight return (probe antice precluding arrival into cold IMC destination) that created 7 hrs delay. Got the meal voucher too.
Feel free to claim, IMHO. Many too often are sound operational requests trimmed for cost / benefit reasons, and the compensation bill does strengthen line personnel's arguments.