The situation:
We have 5 players all learning the game so we will use the family version of the rules.

The problem:
Food. During each harvest each family member needs two food. Further, there are only 4 minor improvements that easily convert animals/veggies to food. How does the last person, the one without a fireplace or oven, build up a food engine?

Not ever one needs a fireplace or hearth, I go many games with out one. I rely on the ovens and bake bread actions. That can be a great source of food.

2 fireplace, 2 hearth, 2 oven > 5 players

Yes, but why is everyone trying to feed their family with animals? If you've got 4 people ALL trying to take the animals, there's not going to be enough for everyone

At least 1 person should be going for a baking strategy - sowing grain and baking it using an oven.

While you're getting a food engine set up, you can feed yourself by taking food from the fish pond, or day labourer (not ideal, as it's a rather inefficient way of doing it)

There's also stuff like the joinery and pottery etc, that allow you to convert wood or clay to food

To be fair, the bake bread route is much less intuitive for starting players. It needs a lot more actions and a lot more planning than just buying a fireplace with some clay then burning animals for lunch. And it doesn't kick in till much later on as a result.

I would agree that the joiner and other similar major improvements can be a valuable source of food, especially as they, like fireplaces and hearths, are discretionary.

Thanks for the tips! Given that we had 4 new people (except me who was teaching the game), the animal slaughter options seemed simpler, whereas the bake bread path seemed more convoluted. Further, the 5th player that I am referring to (the one without fireplaces or hearths) was not working a bake bread strategy till the end when food becomes more scare. As such, he was in bad shape as this strategy takes some time to develop.

I am finding the following strategy guide useful, but please keep any more suggestions coming.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/346380

Wife and I just started playing this last night. And yes, the animal method of feeding seems much easier/more intuitive. I played a game where I went the grain/veggie route and while I ended up okay, I felt like I was on this ice the whole game. You gots to believe!

The oven that converts 1 grain to 5 food is a must-have.