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[ibanix]

I've set up a dwarven daycare for my kids to get them out from under foot. Small room, plenty of beds, statues, etc.

I want to put single (1x1) food and drink stockpiles in there from them. My dwarves invariably end up putting an EMPTY pot/barrel on these 1x1 tiles which is useless. How can I forbid empty pots or barrels from a stockpile?

[Staalo]

Iirc by default a new stockpile will be primed with an empty container if available. Set the 1x1 stockpile to (t)ake food from a larger food stockpile; your haulers should then keep it filled to maximum automatically.

[Dracko81]

I don't think there is a way to forbid the first empty barrel/bin from a stockpile.  When creating stockpiles like this, I usually make them at least 2x1 in size.

The reason it remains empty is because the haulers want to move an entire barrel of food rather than move individual meals.

[mightymushroom]

There are two methods to keep empty barrels and/or bins away from a stockpile.

1: After designating the stockpile, open the (q) menu and use the (e) or (E) key to reduce the number of barrels the stockpile will "request." (c) and (C) do the same for bins. Do this quickly enough – as in, before unpausing – and the first container hauling job will never be created.

2: Take advantage of the knowledge that only certain item categories will automatically call for containers. Designate your stockpile as something else and the max barrels / max bins will already be at zero; I like to use a Custom settings stockpile that has nothing enabled. Then edit your settings via the (q) menu to get what it is you really want. This is perhaps more useful if you are making a custom or limited item stockpile anyway, rather than just a generic food pile.

[§k]

Storing solid food item doesn't need barrel, but out of barrel the food can attract flies which should hopefully temper the children's personality!

While storing alcohol requires barrel, you can always designate a pond area over their room so dwarfs constantly pour water down. They can drink from floor when thirsty.

[anewaname]

For drinks, if you want the kids to have booze and you want no micro-management, you need a 2 tile stockpile because there will always be that one empty barrel.

But, for the design, you didn't mention anything about locking the kids into the room, and if you do not, then adults will go in there to take food and drink (I suspect they will do it as soon as the "most recently produced" food or drink is put in there).

I would suggest no food or drinks in the kid's room, and write the kids burrow onto the dining room, the tavern, the food and drink stockpiles, and the clothing/crafts workshops and stockpiles. This does four things, it keeps the adults out of the kid's room, it allows the kids a variety of food/booze/clothing/crafts (for their preferences and to help their sanity), it gives the kids a chance to socialize with others including their parents (because their parents who have been hauling dead bodies might not tantrum if they get some family time), they will participate in the social scene of your fort which will make adults happy (like that poor dwarf who went into the tavern to Socialize! but all the other dwarfs are away hauling things), and they will have a craft workshop for moods. They will stay in their room much of the time, and never go into more dangerous places of the fort because of the burrow.

[PatrikLundell]

Note that a DF quirk causes stockpiles that have barrels to never give anything to a barrel-less stockpile. Thus, as mentioned, a two tile stockpile is required if you stock small stockpiles from a larger one that has barrels in it.
Also note anewaname's advice, which means you don't really need such stockpiles in this case (but I do in my nuptial encouragement suites).

[Staalo]

Ah. I only now noticed the daycare aspect of this setup. In my daycare rooms I usually don't bother with stockpiles, instead I just dump the necessary food and booze barrels through an access chute that already happens to be there (for "guest lecturer" access).

[Schmaven]

I wonder if having a minecart dump from a hole above onto a 1x1 stockpile would work?  If you're okay with quantum stockpiles, it would keep the kids rooms small (at the expense of some space above) and also you could stock it up well then pause the hauling route to free up dwarf labor for other jobs.  Or rather than dump from above, replace the walls between rooms (after the rooms have been designated) with tracks covered in statues to block foot traffic, and use those tracks for QSP feeding.  If you don't like the QSP aspect, you could set the route to send food once a month, or otherwise enable it / disable it as desired by changing the conditions of the stops.

[ibanix]

Thanks for all the feedback. I ended up allowing the burrow for the kids onto the dining room, so problem solved there.