I wanted to post this a few days ago but I had trouble getting registered. Thanks to someone with the forums, I was finally able to get in!

Anyhow, I was faced with the no food problem a couple of times. My hint is to make a stew if you have that capability. I won't give the recipe here, just search stew recipes. It only takes 10 food to make the stew with the rainbow effect. I would get the water and herbs in the kettle. As soon as I found 2 mushrooms or a red mushroom, I sent someone after food. Then I was able to drag everyone to the kettle and revive their health bars. Some of the olders ones had to go twice but the stew usually lasted long enough. I hope this helps someone keep their villagers alive. I had to do it more than once while trying to increase tech points. I was able to get plenty of mushrooms in my village. But I babysat my son's village one day. He had few mushrooms but lots of collectables! How frustating. At least it helped increase his tech points.