what food sevice regs apply to free food lunch giveaways?

Question

I work with a group that passes out 100 bag lunches , every week to day laborersand am wondering if it is okay to make them in a household kitchen. Do we have to follow the state and local regs for safety and sanitation?

Answer 1

This probably varies by location. We operate a weekly feed-the-hungry program out of ouf church, and were told that since we are not selling the food, the health inspectors have absolutely no say over how we operate. So apparently there are no national laws you need to worry about, as long as you are not selling the food, or moving it across state lines.

All the same, I suspect the real reason we were told this is because our health inspector is too lazy to come out. You should probably call your health inspector, and ask them what the deal is to be certain.