“Passes” and “serves” mean different things, when it comes to food. “Passing” the food is something that a person does when they are seated at a table with others; for example, you could pass a plate of potatoes to the person sitting next to you, so that he can take some for himself. Another example: “Please pass the soy sauce.” “Serving” the food usually means delivering food to another person. Examples: “The waitress took a long time to serve us our food.” “Please come to the table, kids. I’ll be serving dinner in just a minute.”