If you bake it, can you sell it? A ‘right to food’ movement grows.
Kara Donovan thought she had a good thing going when she started making money baking for friends and family in 2014. She’d always had a knack for baking sweet treats. She figured she’d use her hobby to earn some extra income for their house of six – herself, her husband, and four children. It was a good way to spend time with their kids before they started school full time.
Her small operation was successful. It helped them save money on day care expenses, too. Then someone in their community anonymously reported Ms. Donovan’s side gig. Officials with the state of Rhode Island – a highly restrictive state when it comes to cottage food law – shut it down. Under state law, only registered farmers are allowed to sell food made in their home.
Ms. Donovan’s side gig of making pretty cakes and cookies, effectively, was illegal. It hurts, she says. Not just as a
