My colonists are starving but they wont eat.

[Khellendros]

All of my colonists are starving yet a nutrient dispenser is available and powered. They won't go to it to eat. Now they're all having breakdowns. Why aren't they eating? Is this is bug?

[MrRobSteel]

First thought is you either have them all drafted or you don't have any food. In the top left you should have three icons, and some numbers for cash, food and metal. If there's less than that you are probably out of food.

[ShadowDragon8685]

This happened to me, too. I stupidly figured the nutrient dispenser provided food from nothing but power.

It would be nice if it was made more clear in the description that the dispenser requires input of raw foodstuffs... And if how to get more raw foodstuffs was made clearer, too. Evidently, you can't hack up squirrels/muffalo/raiders and feed them into the dispenser.

[GC13]

Yeah, the first thing I'd check is that I hadn't drafted everybody when I wasn't looking. (Er... Wait.) I'd like to think a food shortage wouldn't slip by me.

[Khellendros]

I make sure they're not drafted when they don't need to be. And all of my colonists seem to starve before any crops grow. So I guess that means I'll have to prioritize building hydroponics and a coms relay asap to make sure I have plenty of food before it runs out. I did think the nutrient dispenser was for food but I guess not.

[Zorbane]

Don't forget you can harvets food from plants.  Agave and Berry bushes are a decent source of food early in the game

[ShadowDragon8685]

I make sure they're not drafted when they don't need to be. And all of my colonists seem to starve before any crops grow. So I guess that means I'll have to prioritize building hydroponics and a coms relay asap to make sure I have plenty of food before it runs out. I did think the nutrient dispenser was for food but I guess not.

The nutrient dispenser is like a gigantic auto-chef machine. It takes food you stash in the stockpile and turns it into nutrient paste meals. This is important, as eating nutrient paste gives less unhappy thoughts than eating raw foodstuffs!

But you still need food to feed it in the first place.

[Spike]

Do you have your nutrient paste dispenser in the prison area?  It appears that only prisoners will use it in that case - not everyone.

[Pendryn]

I generally try to keep 1 and a half growing areas per 2 colonists. It is over kill but that extra food can be sold, or, if a blight wipes out my crops I have a stock pile. I usually keep several growing areas for aesthetics once I have hydroponics, but that is usually the last thing I research anyway.

[sparr]

resurrecting this long dead thread in case anyone else comes here looking for a solution to this problem...

I just discovered one cause of colonists refusing to eat. If your prisoner bedroom and food storage room get connected into a single room, such as while you're replacing your doors or installing vents, then your colonists will refuse to pick up things in the prisoner room on their own, including the food in your food storage room.

[OFWG]

... If your prisoner bedroom and food storage room get connected into a single room, such as while you're replacing your doors or installing vents, then your colonists will refuse to pick up things in the prisoner room on their own, including the food in your food storage room.

Still a good tip. I'd just add that the problem with pawns remaining drafted for unlimited amounts of time has not been an issue for quite a while; they auto-undraft if there are no threats on the map.

Also, if you restrict them to an area with no food they won't leave their assigned areas even if starving, and you won't get any warnings about it (other than the starvation itself).