Tag: Food

Solano County legalized home food popups. But chefs still can’t sell

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When Solano County approved a new California law that would legalize home-based kitchen operations in April, it seemed like Cheska Kistner’s plans to open a restaurant in her Benicia home would finally come to fruition. The measure, California’s AB626, allows for what are known as microenterprise food businesses, which Alameda County also made inroads toward legalizing Monday. But no Bay Area county has yet fully implemented the 2018 law, leaving entrepreneurs like Kistner in limbo.

Solano County legalized home food popups. But chefs still can’t sell

Home kitchen entrepreneur Cheska Kistner makes food at her home in Benicia. Kistner is among as many as 100 entrepreneurs waiting for Solano County to finish implementing a law that would allow them to establish legal home kitchen businesses.


Solano County legalized home food popups. But chefs still can’t sell

Home kitchen entrepreneur Cheska Kistner makes food at her home in Benicia. Kistner

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Solano County legalized home food pop-ups. But 6 months later, chefs still can’t sell

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When Solano County approved a new California law that would legalize home-based kitchen operations in April, it seemed like Cheska Kistner’s plans to open a restaurant in her Benicia home would finally come to fruition. The measure, California’s AB626, allows for what are known as microenterprise food businesses, which Alameda County also made inroads toward legalizing Monday. But no Bay Area county has yet fully implemented the 2018 law, leaving entrepreneurs like Kistner in limbo.

Under AB626, cooks can legally sell up to 30 meals a day or 60 per week from their homes when their counties opt in and they have received a permit; their annual gross sales are capped at $50,000. The law has been implemented in only one county so far, Riverside. In Alameda County, many home kitchen operations have proliferated during the pandemic without the option to get proper permitting, leading to the health department cracking

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Bride and groom who canceled wedding reception due to COVID-19 donate food to shelter

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When Tyler and Melanie Tapajna canceled their wedding reception due to COVID-19, they didn’t let the food they ordered go to waste. The Ohio couple decided to take their wedding dinner, which was catered by a food truck, to Laura’s Home, a shelter for women and children in need.

Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center is part of the Ohio non-profit The City Mission, which helps people overcome homelessness. About 70 kids currently attend the Cleveland-based program with their mothers.

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Tyler and Melanie Tapajna arrived at Laura’s Home right after their wedding ceremony. They got in the kitchen and served meals while still in their gown and tux. 

Caroline Stoltzfus/The City Mission


The City Mission CEO Rich Trickel told CBS News he doesn’t believe the Tapajnas have volunteered at the organization before, but they reached out before their wedding day to see if they could help.

Melanie Tapajnas told CBS

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Worsening food insecurity leaves American families like this one in Brooklyn struggling

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At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Sharawn Vinson often woke up crying.

Vinson, an unemployed single mother, had a recurring thought that was making her desperate: that her kids could go hungry.

She had other worries, too. Like fear of contracting the virus, which has disproportionately hit low-income Black families like hers. And some of the largest protests against racial injustice in decades were transpiring right outside their window, after the family had experienced its own terrifying encounter with the police earlier in the year. There also were unpaid bills — and the shame she felt at having to go to a soup kitchen in search of a meal.

So Vinson made the painful decision to send 11-year-old twins Mason and Maddison away from the family’s home in New York to live with their father, six states to the south, knowing that doing so would mean that

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A family struggles as pandemic worsens food insecurity

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NEW YORK (AP) — At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Sharawn Vinson often woke up crying. A recurring thought was making the unemployed single mother desperate: That her kids could go hungry.

There was also fear of contracting the virus, which has disproportionately hit low-income Black families like hers. Meanwhile, some of the largest protests against racial injustice in decades were transpiring right outside their window, after the family had experienced its own terrifying encounter with police earlier in the year. There were unpaid bills and feelings of shame from having to go to a soup kitchen in search of a meal.

So Vinson made the painful decision to send 11-year-old twins Mason and Maddison to live with their father, six states to the south, knowing that way they’d at least be fed.

“I needed them to breathe,” Vinson said, wiping away tears in her living room

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An American family struggle as pandemic worsens U.S. food insecurity

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NEW YORK — At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Sharawn Vinson often woke up crying. A recurring thought was making the unemployed single mother desperate: That her kids could go hungry.

There was also fear of contracting the virus, which has disproportionately hit low-income Black families like hers. Meanwhile some of the largest protests against racial injustice in decades were transpiring right outside their window, after the family had experienced its own terrifying encounter with police earlier in the year. There were unpaid bills, and feelings of shame from having to go to a soup kitchen in search of a meal.

So Vinson made the painful decision to send 11-year-old twins Mason and Maddison to live with their father, six states to the south, knowing that way they’d at least be fed.

“I needed them to breathe,” Vinson said, wiping away tears in her living room of

… Read More

A family struggle as pandemic worsens food insecurity

del piero

NEW YORK (AP) — At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Sharawn Vinson often woke up crying. A recurring thought was making the unemployed single mother desperate: That her kids could go hungry.

There was also fear of contracting the virus, which has disproportionately hit low-income Black families like hers. Meanwhile some of the largest protests against racial injustice in decades were transpiring right outside their window, after the family had experienced its own terrifying encounter with police earlier in the year. There were unpaid bills, and feelings of shame from having to go to a soup kitchen in search of a meal.


So Vinson made the painful decision to send 11-year-old twins Mason and Maddison to live with their father, six states to the south, knowing that way they’d at least be fed.



“I needed them to breathe,” Vinson said, wiping away tears in her living room

… Read More

Miss the Washington State Fair? Set up some fun at home with games, exhibits, food and more

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Sticky masses of people, greasy junk food, livestock, the midway … Going to the fair is fun and exciting and a hallmark of every summer — except this one. The 120-year-old Washington State Fair, usually held in September, is yet another coronavirus casualty.

But we’ve got several ideas for bringing some of the spirit of the fair home, minus the crowds.

Host an animal exhibition

The critters at the Farm at SillyVille are going to be missed: the mama sows with their piglets, the sheep, the llamas, the goats, the cows, all of it.

The fair is where 4-H kids and their animals really get to shine. At home, have your kids show off some animals, whether they’re stuffies or willing pets, if you’ve got them. The kids can clean and groom the animals, then explain how to take care of them. Hand out ribbons for “Best of Show.” If

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Artists Turn Chinatown Food Memories Into Gorgeous Illustrations for a Good Cause

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Maybe it was a weekly ritual you had, strolling through the bustling outdoor produce markets with a beloved grandparent. Or the first time you set off firecrackers with all your cousins to ring in the Lunar New Year. Or a steamer full of pork buns whose sheer deliciousness haunts you to this day.

What’s your favorite Chinatown memory?

That was the question that Good Good Eatz, an Oakland-based initiative offering support to restaurants and markets in Oakland Chinatown during the coronavirus crisis, posed to its supporters last month, getting responses from Chinatown lovers from around the country that ranged from kung fu lessons to family dim sum feasts. From the more than 50 submissions, Good Good Eatz organizers chose five winners whose memories were turned into gorgeous illustrations: a glowingly iridescent sack of steamed buns, a purple-pink montage of a late-night karaoke run among them.

The five illustrations that came

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Parma newlyweds donate reception food to The City Mission

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Still dressed in a wedding gown and tux, Melanie and Tyler Tapajna spent their first few hours as husband and wife serving women and families in crisis.

CLEVELAND — A Parma couple’s wedding day didn’t include the usual reception, DJ and first dance. Instead Tyler and Melanie Tapajna’s said “I Do,” then headed to The City Mission’s Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center to serve women and children experiencing homelessness.

“Why not spread the love,” said bride Melanie Tapajna.  “Seeing everybody happy is making us happy.”

The newlyweds, still dressed in their wedding gown and tux, spent their first few hours as husband and wife in the City Mission’s kitchen dishing out fried chicken, mac and cheese, greens and others items originally intended to be served to guests at their reception.

“We paid for it already so we’re like we might as well donate it,” Tapajna shared just before entering Laura’s

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