The law is there to protect people from unsafe food, we can not ignore it because it does not suit us. God has put the authorities in place for the welfare of the whole society. Our ministry was not so much about feeding them food (for many are not lacking) but to bring them the Gospel. If we can not bring the Gospel without a home-made burrito, then we were never bringing the Gospel at all.

My eternal gratitude to those who have helped make many a burrito these past 18 months. Starting out in a kitchen too small for all of us to fit into, to a kitchen that could be used to feed the entire church (which it has). This has been an amazing journey.

The next step for burritos and socks is unclear. We will still gather together to go downtown with whatever supplies we are permitted but what that develops into is yet to be seen. I encourage all of you to join us as we continue this ministry in its new season.

Also, we will be moving Burritos and Socks to Monday nights next week. We will still meet at the Goodmanson’s this week on Thursday but will meet at Marc Hutchinson’s the following Monday. Consiquently, the Monday night group will now meet at Marc’s on Thursday (next week)

From BurritoAndSocks.com

Can I sell food I make at home?
No. All food sold or given away to the public must be prepared and stored at a commercial food establishment with a valid public health permit.

Romans 13:1-7 says “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment…”

Therefore, are we in sin because we willinging violate the local laws established by the God appointed authorities? At the same time, are we to submit to tyrants and evil-doers? Were those who helped free slaves, sinning? What about those who resisted the Nazis?

According to the California Uniform Retail Food Facilities Law, Division 104 Environmental Health, Part 7 Retail Food, Section 114015 Returned Food/ Food Prepared in Private Homes, Paragraph 4

(4) Nonperishable, prepackaged food maybe given away, sold, or handled from a private home. For puposes of this paragraph only: (A) “nonperishable food” means a food that is not a potentially hazardous food, and that does not show signs of spoiling, becoming rancid, or developing objectionable odors during storage at ambient temperatures; and (B) no food that has exceeded the labeled shelf life date recommended by the manufacturer shall be deemed to be “nonperishable”.

More “facts”…

114015. Returned Food – Food Prepared in Private Homes
(3) Except as provided in paragraph (4), a private home shall not be used for the purpose of giving away, selling, or handling food at retail, as defined in Section 113875.113875. Retail
“Retail” means the storing, preparing, serving, manufacturing, packaging, transporting, salvaging, or otherwise handling food for dispensing or sale directly to the consumer.

114435. Donations of Food to Charity
Any food facility may donate, free of charge, food to a food bank or to any other nonprofit charitable organization for distribution to persons free of charge.

114440. Definition of Nonprofit Charitable Organization
For the purposes of this article, “nonprofit charitable organization” means any organization that was organized and is operating for charitable purposes and meets the requirements of Section 214 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.

It could be argued that since we are not “dispensing to the consumer” we are not violating any laws. But is consumer defined as the person eating the food? If so, then we could not feed our families from our own home.

The other issue is, if we are violating the law, are we justified? It’s good to feed the homeless but we don’t have to make burritos to feed them. We could buy pre-packaged food to hand out, but we can make more burritos than we can buy for the same money. But who are we serving then, us or God?

Do you know where you’re going to lay down your head tonight? Thousands of homeless people in the city of San Diego run the risk of getting ticketed if they sleep on the streets. Business owners and residents say the homeless are nuisances; homeless advocates say they have a constitional right to sleep on the streets. – Full Focus

A lot of us have seen the problem, the homeless need a place to safely sleep but the local businesses have a right to maintain and protect their property and livelyhood. The defacto solution has been to let the homeless sleep on the streets after hours that businesses have closed (7pm) and be off the street by the start of the business day (5am). But if there is any trouble (drugs, fights, trash) the police will make you move and/or ticket you.

Now if you’ve never worked with the homeless, you might imagine spending a few nights in jail would be a welcome relief from the streets. You’d be wrong. Aside from the fact that the jail is a very hostile place, even the homeless want their freedom. For many, this is the problem. They want freedom from responsability, rules and submission to authority (don’t we all) but if you have a job, provide for your family, or own property, then you know that those things come with strings attached. But i digress…should we provide a place for the homelss to sleep (like the tent city) or should they be allowed to sleep anywhere they can?

To get off the streets, you have to have a desire to work for it. There are services that provide for the homeless but they have limited room or resources. To make good use of what they have they aften require the “clients” to take some good faith steps demonstrating their desire to follow through. nobody wants to see homeless people but you don’t want to turn away someone who honestly wants to change their situation because of someone who wants to squander their opportunity used up all the resources.

Full Focus also aired a television interview in November of 2004 on KPBS. It references a few services and links to websites but there are no transcripts or archived clips for you to watch. It’s good to see it discussed but there still seems to be a lot of rhetoric.