Thomas Wright found songs, now obscure, about women having meals in taverns and bathhouses that are suspiciously like picnics. He writes about this in The History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England, suggesting that sharing food and entertainment is common among the lower classes. In one song, women meeting in a tavern each contribute to the meal:
Ech of them brought forth ther dysch;
Sum brought flesh, some fysh.” *
In another song, “Le Banquet des Chambrières fait aux Estuves” (1541), contributions to a bathhouse [estuve means stew] gathering include one andouille, four sausages, cutlet, and hot sauce.
See Thomas Wright. The History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages. London: Chapman & Hall, 1862.