I am trying to keep my town at 8, deliberately. I have had to hand feed them to get this to happen. I grew exactly 8 veggies thinking it would not be enough for a new resident, but one moved in anyway. When I get it back down to 8 I will try selling exactly 8 apples to the store (I have them in cold storage in the basement of the Mayor's house) and see if that works. Eventually I will need to fill the town as this population manipulation takes a lot of effort.

I now have complete control over my entire food supply however no one has asked for food yet and no one has moved out. So do I need to perpetually carry food for the moments when I'm asked? Or can I just have it stashed so I can run & get it as soon as asked for it?

@Aviatrix 'cold storage in basement of the mayors house'?

The peeps won't ask for food until they are almost starving, and sometimes even then they won't ask. Feed them one item (fruit or vegetable) each day, whether they ask or not. Of course, don't feed the rude ones you are trying to starve.

I go around every morning and give each peep a veggie right before I fulfill their favor. I have to remember to feed my bestie and anyone whose favor I cannot grant.

The basement is just my active imagination painting a rich portrait of the Mayor's life and house. I keep the food in my bookcase storage.

How do you give the person food if they don't ask for it? I've tried dragging food to the person but sometimes it just drops to the ground and sometimes it disappears but they've never acknowledge having received it. If they don't acknowledge receiving the food, does that mean they haven't actually received it?

I just drop it on top of them, then they stand still and the action above their head says something like "Having some breakfast."

If they're busy working on a project (like the beach), they won't acknowledge it and their action won't say anything about a meal. The food item just disappears. I am assuming they are eating though.

After a few days or about a week of not eating, the peep's behavior changes a little. It's different in each case, but they slow down, get tired a lot, and so forth. I had to start one of my games over and right away got a really rude townie. My residents are working on the town projects while getting hand fed. The ones who are getting food are staying active and cheerful even if they don't acknowledge the food while they are at work.

@sunshower, I have noticed the little 'having breakfast' dialog since you mentioned that :-) Other times they just stand still for a bit and the food just disappears. No one has actively asked for food yet so I assume I'm keeping all the desirables fed and the undesirable townie seems to be needing a lot of rest, like @Aviatrix mentioned

Oh no! My precious flowers have started spontaneously changing to weeds!?

That happens if you don't water them at least once a day. I went one day without playing the game and the next time I opened it up, several of my flowers had turned into weeds.