Society has ingrained in many peoples heads that any sort of life-altering event (wedding/funeral/birth/1st grade graduation) needs to be celebrated with tons of food. Deaths in the family, specifically, it's typical protocol to make a casserole dish of some sort and give it to the family (so they don't have to worry about cooking anything for a while). It's all just food, food, food, food, food and more food. Also, comfort eating it totally a thing.