Hunger

Hunger is a game mechanic in Darkest Dungeon.

The Hunger Alert
Hunger accrues every so often while you are in a Dungeon. When your characters are hungry, an alert will appear, which demands of the player to choose whether the party will eat or not. There is no option to delay or skip.

This choice will have an immediate effect on your party.


 * If you eat, a set amount of Food will be consumed(usually 1 per party member), and every party member will regain 5% of their HP.
 * If you do not have enough Food, each of them will suffer 20% of their maximum health in damage, and 20 Stress damage.

Multiple Hunger events can occur in a given dungeon.

Speculation
It seems Hunger, like any other event (Fight, Obstacle or Curio) is randomly generated on a dungeon cell in a corridor rather than randomly decided by the game at any given time, or activated after a set amount of time or travel. If it is so, unlike other events, it is never shown on the map even if the area is scouted. This would also mean that it is likely that reentering a hallway has a chance to spawn a new hunger event.

Trivia
Up to 4 Hunger events have been reported for a small Dungeon. In most cases, there is just one.