Council Watch

It's absurd and tyrannical for the government to forbid us from sharing food we prepare in our own homes with the community. The policy serves to dissuade individuals from direct action against hunger and greed. It gives the city a pretext to extend their general harassment of homeless folks to those who feed them, which they are doing.

Smaller groups simply cannot afford the facilities required to comply with the restaurant code. No amount of police repression or pages of laws will ever put more money into our pockets. If city official these organizations to get up to standard, they should tax the rich and supply us with what we need.

But I question even the legitimacy of the health code in the first place. Folks eat meals cooked in their own homes all the time without dying. Potlucks legally make such food available to the public on a regular basis. I can see the reason for monitoring commerical ventures, because the profit motive compels to cut corners whatever they can get away with it. We operate with a different purpose and gain nothing to handing out dangerous food.

The city's restrictions on food sharing compromise individual freedom and deny nutrition to hungry people while offering only a questionable benefit to public safety in return. They should be scrapped immediately.