Solve World Hunger with Meal Stations

[REMworlder]

^{Everyone loves nutrient loaf.}

Rather than allow colonists to wander through kitchens or dig around in supply rooms to get fed, many colonies designate food serving stations. Inspired by automat restaurants found on midworld planets, these stations are intended to keep food warm, maintain sanitary serving conditions, and give colonists convenient access to food.

How Does it Work?
In Rimworld, the meal station is a way of designating what meals should be eaten by colonists. Meals held at meal stations have the highest priority for consumption. Haulers stock older meals in meal stations to avoid waste from meals expiring. Meal stations also stop colonists from eating valuable emergency survival rations or other meals randomly scattered across the map.

Meal stations require a modest amount of metal, with more metal investment required if hoppers are used. A meal station consumes around 100-200 watts to keep the machine sanitary and the food warm; when power is lost the machine may build up "dirt" that needs cleaning nearby. Meal stations can usually hold all types of meals.

^{"pls get out of my kitchen and use the meal station thx"}

Levels of Implementation
I. Basic Tool
The meal station is a piece of furniture that functions just like a small storage zone, but only for meals. Any meal that is placed there receives the highest priority for consumption from colonists. Players can select the types of meals allowed in a meal station.

II. Better Logistics
Meals are automatically hauled to the meal station, with older meals receiving highest priority. Older meals are automatically pulled first from meal stations. Meals stations can have an adjustable ingredient search radius to give the player more control.

III. New Game Mechanic
Meals are automatically put in hoppers adjacent to the meal station. This gives hoppers a use besides nutrient paste creation! Meals put in the meal station are automatically labelled "HOT," giving a small, brief happy thought to the colonists that eat them. Hot meals have the highest priority for eating.

^{It's all just squares, maaan.}

But Why Meal Stations?
Meal stations offer a straightforward way to direct colonists to food.

Colonists and food already have a complicated relationship, and it's not uncommon for colonists to self-starve while retrieving meals on the other side of the map, doctoring, wardening prisoners, etc. Plus the new update introduces some cool new mechanics, like unrefrigerated raw food spoilage, that add another logistical hurdle to keeping colonist hunger satiated.

Meal stations will allow colonists to waste less time hunting for food or randomly pulling meals from stockpiles. Meal station priority also solves the problems created by unforbidding meals dropped by raiders or seiges.