Meal provider — someone tending to consume a lot of tea (7)
I believe the answer is:
caterer
'meal provider' is the definition.
'caterer' can be an answer for 'provider' (caterer is a kind of provider). I am not sure about the 'meal' bit.
'someone tending to consume a lot of tea' is the wordplay.
'someone tending' becomes 'carer' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to consume' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a lot of' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'tea' with its final letter taken off is 'te'.
'carer' enclosing 'te' is 'CATERER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for caterer that I've seen before include "One providing food and service for a party" , "Someone needed for party" , "Provider of food and drink" , "Someone providing food and service" , "Provider of food and drinks" .)