C.O.O.K. Alliance
Help protect consumers and cooks in California!
Protecting consumers and cooks from bad-acting companies
Posted June 26, 2019
A two hour call to help our non-profit understand how the California state AG might enforce state regulations against a company that is operating illegally and taking advantage of it's workers.
Quick facts: the COOK Alliance helped write a pass a new food law that legalizes the ability for people to permit, cook, and sell food out of their home kitchens in CA. The bill is designed to give marginalized people access to a new type of gig work. The bill passed, but it's a county-by-county opt in process and, thus far, only 1 county has opted-in out of 58 (meaning the behavior is still largely illegal). There are two tech platforms already operating - meaning they have cooks cooking at home and selling their food. In addition to operating in counties that haven't adopted this legislation, both companies are using exploitative practices and not following the law as written (for example, the platforms are doing delivery when that is explicitly disallowed in the bill).
I'm trying to figure out how to best protect the cooks and consumers affected by this illegal and exploitative behavior. Specifically, I am looking for help on how to write a complaint to the California AG and how to best work with the AG.
C.O.O.K. Alliance
The C.O.O.K. Alliance is the leading voice for home food entrepreneurs in the United States. New home cooking laws are legitimizing an existing informal 'gig economy' and shifting the ways people find meaningful work in an increasingly automated world. We are deeply committed to shaping the home cooking sector to promote greater dignity and opportunity for cooks, as well as healthy food access for consumers, than historically found in the U.S. food industry. Our nonprofit is comprised of cooks, technologists, policy wonks, and labor organizers based in Oakland, CA. We sponsored California’s Homemade Food Operations Act (AB 626), which went into law this year and makes California the first state in the U.S. to permit “microenterprise home kitchens” to sell prepared meals to the public. We are currently working on all issues of implementation, creating model legislation, and working on novel legal questions that are arising in this new industry.
C.O.O.K. Alliance
The C.O.O.K. Alliance is the leading voice for home food entrepreneurs in the United States. New home cooking laws are legitimizing an existing informal 'gig economy' and shifting the ways people find meaningful work in an increasingly automated world. We are deeply committed to shaping the home cooking sector to promote greater dignity and opportunity for cooks, as well as healthy food access for consumers, than historically found in the U.S. food industry. Our nonprofit is comprised of cooks, technologists, policy wonks, and labor organizers based in Oakland, CA. We sponsored California’s Homemade Food Operations Act (AB 626), which went into law this year and makes California the first state in the U.S. to permit “microenterprise home kitchens” to sell prepared meals to the public. We are currently working on all issues of implementation, creating model legislation, and working on novel legal questions that are arising in this new industry.