Woman feeding homeless violating food code? (City says she should pay $240/mo)

[The Straight Story]

Woman feeding homeless violating food code?

Woman feeding homeless violating food code? Previous Next Woman feeding homeless violating food code?
TUCSON - Last August, News 4 brought you a story about a woman trying to make a difference.

L. Karin Elliot is cooking up meals at her home and twice a week she delivers them to homeless folks at a couple city parks. She's fed over 3,000 people in the last year.

Since that story ran, the county says she's in violation of the food code, while the city wants to charge her for setting up in the parks. That will cost her up to $240 per month.

...

"The difference becomes where, you're feeding family and friends and you're not opening up your picnic or your outing to anyone that's sitting around at the park," says Karen Martin with the Pima County Health Department.


http://www.kvoa.com/news/woman-feeding-homeless-violating-food-code-/

[Macoy51]

1. Feeding the Hungry

I wonder how many meals she will have to cut if $240/month is added to her cost? And I wonder what the city will do with that $240/month? Not feed a hundred people, that is for sure.


Macoy

[siligut]

2. Right, making her pay so she won't be in violation of food code

That makes sense, NOT!

[The Straight Story]

3. It sounds like "If you pay us, we trust you, if you don't we won't"

So I guess money makes people more trustworthy....

[Macoy51]

6. When do I get my Letter?

I bake and serve about 100 free desserts a week, (my part of a meal program) ………wonder how long until I get a nasty letter ordering me to pay up?

On a side note, I have worked as a cook in many restaurants and I would rank the sanitation in my own kitchen as far above the average professional kitchen.



Macoy

[RKP5637]

4. Yet another WTF moment. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

5. Health code violation my ass.

They don't want to encourage those wretched homeless people to hang around. I mean, after all, if you feed them they'll just keep coming back!

I love the part about how her kitchen may not be up to health code. Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant kitchen knows damn well how filthy they can be. I've seen things that made me want to wretch, including dropping a steak on the floor, picking it up and putting it back on the grill. And this was at a high-end restaurant. If home cooks were so unsanitary you'd think there would be outbreaks of food poisoning nationwide. Reasonable cleanliness in ANY kitchen, including food storage and food preparation, will ensure the food is safe.

[rucky]

7. Sounds like a shakedown to me. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

8. FFS. K&R n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

9. Yeah, who cares if a bunch of homeless people get food poisoning, anyway?

You can't run a restaurant without adhering to local code regarding operating a restaurant. This woman could be severely screwed (legally) if she causes any person she's serving illicitly to become ill. Food safety laws exist for a reason, and the homeless deserve the protection of those laws no less than any paying restaurant patron.

[Cleita]

13. I suppose the food they fish out of the dumpster

is so sanitary. Really, I understand that what you are saying is that they should also have access to the same quality of food that we do, but actually they don't, because our society doesn't give a fuck. So maybe she doesn't have a stainless steel kitchen, but I'll bet what she is serving up is a hell of a lot safer than fishing out half finished meals from the dumpsters behind restaurants. I have seen the homeless doing that.

[AngryOldDem]

27. But if someone is cooking food for them...

...to prevent exactly what you describe -- shouldn't that vendor be under the same licensing and regulation structure as any other food vendor? Shouldn't the homeless who take food from her be assured that they are getting properly made food? When someone sets up something like this, word quickly spreads among the homeless community, which means there most likely would not be the same incidences of eating out of trashcans.

And you can't always assume that what is being served up is "a hell of a lot safer" than what is in a Dumpster. In my time of working at a shelter, I had to throw out a lot of outdated and otherwise spoiled food donated by well-intentioned people.

[Cleita]

28. You know if the licensing were reasonable, like maybe

$50 a year, I'm sure that well-meaning people wouldn't object. But the law in my state says they have to have a restaurant style kitchen with all the accompanying permits etc., etc. to do this. By the time the money is spent, you need to open a restaurant. Another alternative would be for churches and those with schools attached that have cafeterias to allow people to prepare meals out of their kitchens to feed the homeless, but I don't see many churches stepping up to the plate for this without strings attached.

I wonder if a way around this is for people to invite the homeless to their homes like guests. I don't think the law could object then if anyone is willing to do this.

[Mimosa]

19. Please, people who know how to cook at home do NOT give people food poisoning.

You'd be surprised how clean and expert home cooks are.

[Lance_Boyle]

24. I am a home cook, and I realize that I am not infallable.

Food poisoning is not always the result of improper prep - sometimes the raw ingredients are bad (hepatitis in green onions, etc.).

Food safety regs should be followed by anyone in foodservice, whether that service is paid or not.

[SoCalDem]

25. I don't know why some people don't "get it"

laws are for everyone..even "good cooks"..(who decides that one?)

If you do this on the sly and never get caught, no big deal, and the people appreciate it, but if you do it on a big scale, someone will notice it and write about it or do an interview & then the law comes down on you.. rinse repeat..

In every small town, there is probably "someone" who bakes goodies for a Mom & Pop restaurant, or hands out freebies to poor people, BUT once it's public, the law HAS to step in..

[Mimosa]

31. In the Great Depression people fed hungry people.

Keep the meat refrigerated until you cook it. Keep the stew hot. Nobody ever got sick on biscuits and cornbread.

Keep the stuff for sandwiches refrigerated. Then put it together and serve quickly. ;)

[AngryOldDem]

26. Good luck with this argument.

That is precisely why there are regulations about food service.

If your hot dog stand man can't hand out food without a license, then these well-meaning feed-the-homeless types should be under the same scrutiny. It is a SAFETY issue.

Waiting for the flames, which will invariably come...

[SoCalDem]

10. "...cooking up meals at her home..."......food code

To the law, it does not really matter if she's giving the food away or selling it. If she's prepping food for "others", she's expected to follow the same laws that other food-purveyors follow.

If she invited those people to her home, she'd probably be able to feed them all she wants.

The law is perverse sometimes, but even do-gooders have to follow the rules, or gain enough of a following to change them

[Retrograde]

30. Any time "food" and "general public" come up in the same conversation

expect the law to get involved. Some places are pretty lenient and will only require that you prepare the food in an approved kitchen; others will want permits and other stuff. If the food is going to be served in your home or is for a private group the law generally doesn't care, but giving away food to all comers, like the woman in the story does, makes it their concern.

If she's really concerned about feeding people it sounds like there are some options, even if they do cost $$.

[WatsonT]

11. These stories pop up from time to time

usually just some food code violation.

I can understand the outrage but this really isn't a bad law. We want a certain degree of oversight for our food supply. And simply being free doesn't prevent it from causing food poisoning.

[The Straight Story]

12. As noted in the story though

This law does not apply to things like family picnics/reunions/etc - should it? Free food, for those who want it - at what point do we say we trust the source - when they have paid a fee to serve the food?

[WatsonT]

14. You have to draw a line at some point

regulating what food is served to the public is not some evil fascist conspiracy.

[leftstreet]

21. And the stories are always about the lone person or couple

The 'do-gooders' being oppressed by the system :cry:

The underlying implication is ALWAYS that the 'poor' should be able accept lowered standards because, well, they're poor. It's sick.

These attention whores need to get off their butts and build actual community coalitions strong enough to comply with local ordinances.

[WatsonT]

23. Yep

small businesses probably get dinged with this same law all the time but we never hear about it. That's because there is no story in that: they broke the law, they got caught, now they have to pay. Simple enough.

I wonder if I can market asbestos filled, lead paint lined shacks with substandard wiring and get away with it so long as I'm giving them away to the poor?

[Angry Dragon]

15. you're feeding family and friends ......... from article

So she makes friends quickly
Is it the city's job to determine who her friends are??
Sounds like a nanny city

[lonestarnot]

16. Put up a picket line!

[Mimosa]

17. Can anybody imagine this happening in the Great Depression?

This nation has become more CRUEL!

[devilgrrl]

18. Libertarian Arizona is all about getting government off peoples back.

:eyes:

[AsahinaKimi]

20. Punishing people who feed the hungry...

WTF kinda country have we become?

[pinto]

22. Looks like she serves about 30 each meal. (3,000 / 104)

I'd encourage her to look for donations in the community-at-large and among her guests. Only $1 per meal would allow her to tell the County to leave her alone. I'd underwrite 8 meals (2 a week x 4) with $8. Shoot, I'd add $2 to help with overhead.

There are two small meal "events" in the park near my house I'm involved with at times, when I can.

Every Sunday noon a family brings a meal in pots, literally off the kitchen stove, to a table and serves any and all until they run out of food. Their kids come to help out, and eat with whoever shows up as well, so I assume their food safety standards are pretty good.

The other is a Thursday night flash pot luck, open again to all. Everyone brings a dish and shares with each other and whoever shows up. That one's really popular. Again, I suspect food safety is probably not a big risk.

Both are notably unequivocal on who gets a meal or a snack. And, as far as I know, neither have had a run in with Public Health.

[Ignis]

29. Food not bombs. (nt)