[Dave Carter]

we are wanting to provide sandwiches for sale as a fund raiser for our church Just during the 4 or 5 weekend hollidays during the year and at our car washes. Is there any input for us regarding this matter . the only thing is assemblling of the sandwiches at time of sale . Thanks Dave Carter

[David CrabillKeymaster]

I don’t think you can do that, whether or not you assemble them at the point of sale or at home. I believe that the exemption for selling things only applies to non-potentially hazardous items. You could buy sandwiches from a store and then sell those instead, to raise money. You should call your health dept to make sure it’s not allowed for you to make them yourselves.

[David CrabillKeymaster]

In rereading this post, I’m now not so sure if you could buy sandwiches from a store and then resell them. The most important thing, when dealing with refrigerated items like this, is to call your health dept for more info.

[Roger BaerParticipant]

Our church has participated in the Rancho Cucamonga, CA Christmas Light event for about 10 years. Each year we GIVE AWAY FREE more than 10,000 cups of Nestle Hot Chocolate at absolutely NO CHARGE! We are being told that we can no longer do this, but the information came months after we had already purchased thousands of dollars in Hot Chocolate mix and supplies that are non-returnable. None of the ingredients are on any of the lists published on the CFO website. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS?

[David CrabillKeymaster]

Roger, it’s likely that you actually haven’t been offering the hot chocolate under any kind of legal structure in the past, so there probably isn’t a legal way you can continue what you’ve been doing. Two ideas:
1. Provide the hot chocolate dry with hot water available for people to mix their own. This may still not be allowed, but it would be more likely to be approved by the health dept.
2. Inquire with the ag or health dept about whether there is a special permit for hot drinks. Sometimes items like coffee, tea, and maybe hot chocolate don’t require the extensive licensing that other food items do. It helps that you’re offering commercially-produced hot chocolate mix. However, the scale of what you’re doing would still likely result in it being quite a hassle.

By the way, that’s amazing that you spend thousands of dollars on hot chocolate every year — that’s quite the donation!

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