I think once, and for all a flaw I noticed on every setting was that food was made to be this big deal......Yet no PC was required to eat. Food would grow scarce, and all these NPCS would complain yet PCS were unaffected by this food shortage.
I say make food, drink, and rest all things a PC needs, and if a PC lacks them then they should get stats drained, and eventually die of hunger, first, or a lack of sleep. Its time we the PCS feel any affect of a food shortage.
This will probably never be in the DM team's interest to impose this banal minutiae, but those PCs who do things like roleplay the drains of exhaustion or hunger will generally be rewarded down the line.