Maybe this is a little late, but isn't the idea of food rations for peasants a bit strange? They aren't soldiers you distribute food to. They farm all of the food, and some of it (the surplus) is taken as taxes for the lord. If surplus is is lower than 0, the region starves.
In order to make a region last longer on food, instead of handing out rations, doesn't it make more sense to lower surplus extraction? I wouldn't propose calling them taxes though, as that can only cause confusion.
Food rationing is something that has often been inflicted upon civilians. Its not so much the act of handing out food, as it is the act of restricting the availability of food. This would conceptually be different for rurals vs cities, but logically is the same thing.
Doubling food rations means exactly as you say, the Lords allow the peasantry to keep more of their harvest for their own use (rurals) or through some manner of policy provides greater food resources in the markets(cities), resulting in fatter happier peasants, effectively you double food consumption of the region. Halving food rations obviously causes peasants to do without, thus halving food consumption. For a city that is struggling to meet food requirements you can see how that would be useful, and for a rural you might get some short term benefit from it to increase the food "surplus" for trade at the expense of your peasant bellies.
