Jump directly to the Content

News&Reporting

Pennsylvania: The Bake Sale is Back in Business

After a health inspector gets zealous, state passes law letting nonprofits sell homemade food.
|

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has signed a bill into law which protects church bake sales, potlucks and similar events from sanction by state food inspectors, according to WHTM.

Pennsylvania church leaders—and, no doubt, church bake sale cooks—welcomed what became known as the "Pie Bill."

"Everybody likes pie," pastor Mike Greb told The Philadelphia Inquirer this week. His own St. Cecilia's Catholic Church has been at the epicenter of the recent controversy. ""These fundraisers are our survival," Greb said. "In tough economic times, they keep the doors open and the lights on."

In early 2009, an inspector from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture shut down a St Cecilia's Lenten bake sale.

Since the food was coming from a non-state-inspected kitchen, the state government considered it a "potentially hazardous substance." Freshman State Senator Elder Vogel decided to introduce a bill—his first in the legislature, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review—allowing nonprofits to sell ...

Subscriber access only You have reached the end of this Article Preview
To continue reading, subscribe now. Subscribers have full digital access.
Already a CT subscriber? for full digital access.

Read These Next

close
hide this
Access The Archives

Member-Only Access

Subscribe to Christianity Today to continue reading this article from CT's digital archives.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? to continue reading.