I'm in the 5th city, most of the way done, but for almost the entire time, a majority of my workers..

I used one of the 30 minute watch prizes and it gave me 5k food from the hunters cabin and my kitchen was able to make enough meals.

I would suggest reducing the number of workers you have in production buildings. Stick to the bare minimum (fuel, food, kitchen). To increase the hunter's cabin's worker capacity or production rates, you need to level up the hero. You either need yellow or red stars as well as cards. For yellow stars, I would focus on collecting stars from the map and battling wild animals. For hero cards and red stars, you need boxes. This will be achieved with tasks or free daily boxes in the shop. The shop offers blue boxes daily, which renew every 8 hours.

In summary, collect (every 2 hours) and battle animals for yellow stars. Open blue boxes (every 8 hours) to get red stars and hero cards. Level up your hero and increase worker capacity and production rates. Hopefully, this gives some direction on tackling the food issue.