Food Processing
Commercial Kitchen
A commercial kitchen provides space and equipment for members of the community to rent or use for free in order to produce food. Depending on the intended use, the kitchen design can focus on capacity for large batches, equipment to allow canning and preservation or duplication of equipment to allow multiple users at once.
Case StudiesRhode Island Community Food Bank
This kitchen provides a location for culinary job training for local adults where students learn how to create healthy meals and gain employment in restaurants and commercial kitchens while providing food to hungry children. Over 500 students have gone through the program since 1998. La Cocina (San Francisco, CA) Works with primarily low income Hispanic community, since 2006- 4,400 sq ft kitchen, businesses apply to grow their business- not a rental space- focused on growing small businesses. YorKitchen (York, PA) Since 2011, available for rent 24/7, allows local farmers to add value to products without the cost of commercial grade equipment. They provide classes and connection to farmers market. Farmers are able to use the 1200 sq ft space for $25 per hour. |
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Regulations
The California State Assembly passed the California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616) in order to allow home-based food producers to sell food processed in their home kitchens. Certain high-risk foods that require refrigeration, such as meat and dairy, continue to be prohibited. But many kinds of fruit, nut, vegetable and grain products may now be processed in home kitchens for sale. Certain conditions must be met. No more than one person who does not live in the home may be employed in the cottage food operation; labeling requirements must be met; and kitchens will be subject to inspection--depending on how the food will be distributed. Locally, the City of Los Angeles regulates this kind of business as a home occupation, which is allowed on the Ghettostead site. However, were the Ghettostead operator to allow people who live outside of the home to use the kitchen for commercial purposes that residents of the site do not formally manage, this would be prohibited by the State of California and the City of Los Angeles. Additionally, a commercial kitchen could not allow more than one person who is not a resident of the site to be on site using the kitchen at any time. This does, however, allow multiple people to use it at different times.
Tactical Options
- Implement a commercial kitchen operated by a resident at the Ghettostead site, gaining a permit from the California Department of Public Health and following the Zoning Code’s rules for Home Occupations. The Ghettostead operator may invite a chef-in-residence who would qualify as the operator of the kitchen.
- Implement a commercial kitchen that accommodates multiple businesses and simultaneous users. Since the State and the City have aligned limitations on the scale of home-based commercial kitchens, this option may be paired with advocacy for a zone change at the local level or rule changes at the state level.
- Implement a shared kitchen that accommodates multiple simultaneous users but without a commercial use component. The programming would be primarily educational. And any products distributed from the kitchen would need to be given away complementarity or through complementary currencies like time credits.