I lost track of version numbers, but if you are using the MegaMod that's on the workshop here, it's badly outdated and will have issues at some point.
More recent version of MM can be found either on BlackLiquidSoftware.com (home to Kralyerg who gathered all the mods into MegaMod) or on WorldOfBanished.com, and the last version is too large to be uploaded here.

About the food issue. I know that on BlackLiquid we have a mod (not included in MM) that increases how much peopel eat, but not one that reduces the amount of food people need. There might be one on WorldOfBanished, and if there's one there it should be compatible with MM.

The other way to solve the issue would be to focus more on food production early on and on walking distances between homes/barns/production places before expanding too fast. MM is pretty overwhelming, it's easy to get distracted and fall off the food/people balance.

If you are using hot climates, don't try to grow any random crop, get the seeds for crops that do well in hot climates. Most other crops will simply stop growing when it gets too warm and you'll ahve terrible harvests. There's a chart for climates and crops temperature ranges here: https://www.blackliquidsoftware.com/forum/Thread-Temperatures-in-Colonial-Charter

From the top of my mind, rice planters from the CC Dock set and Duck Blinds (also from CC) are really strong food production tools, they might help you get your food problem sorted.

In general, for the workforce / time used, you'll always be better off adding an extra field (or gatherer) than transforming the food. Transforming might get you more food out than what you put in, but it'll rarely equal the raw gain you'd have from putting that worker on a brand new field. See food transformation as a more "Cosmetic / Role Play / Realism" thing to add flavor to your town, not really a solid tool to rescue your people from starvation.

Thanks for the suggestions and tips, Vrayna. I'll give them a go