No Home-Cooked Meals For The Poor . . . ABC News . . .

[OneBlueSky]

No Home-Cooked Meals For the Poor? Give Me A Break!
Want to Donate to Charity? Make Sure You're Doing It The Government's Way.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2708213&page=1

(snip)

Many churches in Fairfax County, Va., serve home-cooked meals to the poor. . . It looks like a happy affair, but are you aware that this is criminal activity?!! They're preparing food, serving food to people. According to Fairfax County health department regulations, that's not safe, and last week there was a crackdown on the lawlessness.

Hundreds of pages of regulation say that to serve food to the public, you need a food manager certificate, a ware-washing machine (with internal baffles), drain-boards, ventilation hood systems, a sink with at least three compartments, as well as a hand-washing sink, can openers with removable parts, and so on for hundreds of pages … and you must get a commercial kitchen license.
Homeless people we talked to were outraged at the bureaucrats. "Some of them take their jobs just a little too seriously," said one man. "They got nothing better to do than sit around and write legislation."

"I thought they was crazy," said another man. "I mean, helping people and they're trying to stop it."

- more . . .

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2708213&page=1

[Raine]

1. Stossel had that

on his little segment "give me a break". I don't trust anything he puts out there, there's always more to these things than mets the eye.

[anitar1]

3. Stossel has always been a liar, he hates the homeless . n/t

[ncrainbowgrrl]

4. We have requirements on what can be donated to the homeless shelter here.

Which is too bad, as there are SO many holiday parties taking place right now... with so much waste in the form of leftovers. It can't be donated once the tray of food has been touched. Even worse- a local bakery tried to donate the bread that didn't sell that day or the day after and would be useless/stale much beyond the next few days--we're talking about whole loaves of bread here.
The "official" line is that the bread is too hard and that many residents couldn't chew it due to dental issues- some residents are missing teeth and may not be able to sufficiently chew/swallow the bread. To me, it sounds more like a CYA policy- makes it so that no one can choke and sue. Perhaps I'm just cynical. (but we knew that!)

[Quantess]

2. Hate to say so, but in a sue-happy country, you need to cover your ass.

Even when doing nice things. You just have to!
Not to mention, the "terrorist threat" as in, terrorists could sneak poison into food for the poor or something stupid like that.

[kanrok]

6. Stop already with the "sue happy" crap

You're buying in to right wing propaganda. Simply put, there are rules that we all have to abide by. The local homeless shelter where I volunteer has to follow the local ordinances vis-a-vis food preparation. It's a public health issue, nothing more.

[Quantess]

13. No, I'm just being realistic.

It's possible that I might be believing RW propaganda, as you say, but not intentionally. Organizations of all kinds, get sued all the time. That should be no big secret.

[Quantess]

14. Now I see what you meant. I wrote post #2 poorly.

I made my point only halfway, and ended up looking like I was spewing RW talking points. I meant, that people are so easily whipped up by the threat of terror, that they could be scared into worrying that terrorists would do something to food for homeless people. Or, believe some other paranoid delusion that might entail a lawsuit, just because someone didn't follow strict regulations.

I think that's excellent that you volunteer at a homeless shelter, and I am positive that the clientele are not giving a second's thought to the rigamarole that might be asked of food preparers. :hi:

[Nobody]

5. How recent are the regulations?

I ask because in 1989 I worked for a fast food place with no hand-washing sink, and the sink we had was two-compartment. No dishwashing mashine, either. The place stayed open in that location until (I think) 1995.

I question the validity of this report. Suppose you want to bake a cake and take it to some friends? Or this year your aunt is hosting Xmas Eve and it's your turn to bring the Lutefisk Hotdish. Do you need a license for that?

Is it because you don't know the people you're feeding and they don't know you?

If this story is true, that would mean no more homecooked goodies to bring to work for the Annual Potluck Munchfest. There might be a coworker you haven't met yet. Forget inviting your Ladies Sewing Circle And Anarchist League over for tea and home-made scones. After all, who knows if you get a new member? And your cousin may just have gotten married and you have yet to meet the spouse's other children. So much for bringing that Lutefisk Hotdish you'd promised to bring.

[timetoleave]

7. I wonder..

if a person from the shelter moved the place to their home and fed the people if they could try to regulate that?

[newyawker99]

10. Hi timetoleave!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Richard D]

8. I was at one of the local Whole Food stores . . .

. . . at closing one evening. They have these big rack heaters full of a couple dozen cooked chickens. They were just dumping all of these chickens into a trash can. Multiply that by all of the prepared foods in the deli case that get wasted every day, multiply that by hundreds of Whole Foods, multiply that by tens of thousands of markets that do the same thing . . . Such a horrible waste. And legally none of it, I believe, can be given away.

[NYCGirl]

9. In NYC, Whole Foods donates prepared foods to City Harvest, as do MANY

restaurants, shops, hotels, etc. All this gets distributed.

http://www.cityharvest.org/

City Harvest, a non-profit organization founded in 1982, is the world's first and New York City's only food rescue program.

Millions of pounds of good, edible food are thrown away each year by New York City food businesses. At the same time, more than one million people are hungry, including nearly 350,000 children and more than 140,000 senior citizens. City Harvest is the link between those who have so much and those who have too little.

This year, City Harvest will rescue 20 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry - including restaurants, manufacturers, wholesalers, greenmarkets, hotels, corporate cafeterias, grocery stores and farms - and deliver it to more than 600 community food programs throughout the five boroughs using a fleet of 15 trucks and volunteers on foot. Each week, City Harvest helps over 260,000 hungry New Yorkers find their next meal.

City Harvest exists to end hunger in communities throughout New York City. We do this through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions.


List of who donates:
http://www.cityharvest.org/food/donates.html

[Richard D]

11. That's great!

I haven't seen that happening in L.A. yet. Hopefully some day.

[dogday]

12. Similar story in Houston. Some people went downtown

with a lot of food to serve for Christmas dinner and the health department said they could not do it, cuz there are regulations... I think the hungry people should decide whether they think the food is safe, not the government.... Freaking intrusive government...