Gov. Brown opened the door for numerous California entrepreneurs to start businesses by signing AB 626, which will allow the sale of meals prepared in home kitchens. This new law will benefit many Californians, especially women, immigrants and people or color.
Now that there is a pathway for selling food out of homes legally, AB 626 will permit thousands of existing cooks to openly access business education and training on safe food handling practices. Small-scale microenterprises are an important tool for those who want to grow their business but don’t have access to sufficient capital to enter the commercial food industry.
This measure will be particularly beneficial to women and people of color: groups that are starting businesses at exceptionally high rates but often struggle to access funding and resources to get their businesses off the ground. In fact, a poll by the C.O.O.K. Alliance found roughly 85 percent of cooks in the informal food economy are women, 35 percent are first-generation immigrants, 40 percent are people of color and 40 percent have annual household incomes under $40,000.
We support any legislation that would help entrepreneurs thrive, and AB 626 will do just that. We’re glad California recognized the part this law will play in bolstering small business activity.
