California State Senator Jenny Oropeza, with her heart of oro, is at it again. Yesterday, the Long Beach Democrat reintroduced a bill that would facilitate food donation from caterered events.
A similar bill from last session didn’t pass, largely due to restaurant industry objections. Senate Bill 35 picks up where that one left off, but Oropeza hopes to make its terms more palatable to businesses while still helping food donations go to those in need.
Last year’s bill (SB 1443) would have allowed customers to mandate food donation in their catering contracts. Not surprisingly, businesses were worried about food safety.This time, Oropeza plans to be a bit less concrete:
For 2009, she hopes to work closely with industry officials to hammer out a measure that benefits the needy while protecting businesses.
And with more compromise, Oropeza plans to win over the doubters within the legislature (1443 passed in the Senate, but not the Assembly). As her communications director Ray Sotero said:
SB 35 was written in general language with the hope that terms could be hashed out among legislators.
Come on legislators–hash it out!
Comments
One response to “Legislating Donation, Take Two”
Now that is something I like. If we allowed food donations, resturants could better deal with their leftover food, deserving poor* could be fed, and everyone would be happy.
*deserving poor does not mean qualifying who can and can’t get food, but the idea that poor people deserve to still eat.