If you are running low on food you can do this simple thing. Put the game on pause and sweep the island for mushrooms. Mushrooms and items will stil appear but the time of the game will not p since it's in pause :). Just drag&drop a kid on the mushroom then unpause the game just enough for the kid to bring it to the food basket. Then you pause the game again and start once more sweeping. You can do this as long as you want and your villagers won't starve since the game is ... paused. Also goes with item so your tech points can also grow without the time of game evolving.