Possible Changes to the Staple Foods Ordinance
I’ve recently been hearing concerns about the staple food ordinance I was proud to author back when it passed the Council unanimously in 2014. Specifically, those concerns have to do with dairy and other animal products, and cultural practices and personal preference about those specific food items. I’ve asked City staff to continue to give stores the flexibility to meet the intent of our standards with culturally-appropriate foods, as they have been in enforcing the ordinance to date. It’s important for everyone to know that in the last three and a half years, according to inspection records, no store has received a citation for failure to stock dairy or cheese (only two fines have been given so far, both for failure to provide cereal), no Asian ethnic market has been given a violation notice of any kind, and over half of the 28 violations since April of 2016 have gone to large corporations like CVS, Walgreens, SuperAmerica, Holiday, and various dollar stores. But despite that, I ...