Governor Brown signed AB 1616 (the California Homemade Food Act) into law this past September and it will go into effect in January. What does this legislation mean for small-scale food enterprises in our state? What new avenues for commerce have been opened? And which ones remain restricted? How can YOU make a profit from your own homemade goods?

Join us at The Food Craft Institute headquarters for a lively discussion of the potential opportunities created by this new law. Speakers for the afternoon will include:

Christina Oatfield from the Sustainable Economies Law Center

Christina works to research and develop resources for start-up and small-scale food businesses thatwill be vital components of the new economy. She managed the successful grassroots campaign to enact the California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616), a cottage food law for California. She is currently investigating other possibly policy proposals to support more vibrant localized food economies while also participating in collaborative food policy groups, including serving on the Steering Committee of the California Food Policy Council, leading the Policy Committee of the Northern California Chapter of Slow Money and serving on the Berkeley Food Policy Council.

Frederick Smith, Business Consultant and Founding Partner of Forage Kitchen

Frederick is a recent MBA Graduate from UC Davis Graduate School of Management, with a concentration in Entrepreneurship & Finance, and a Steering Committe Member of Slow Money Norcal's SOIL group. This past year, he performed an SBDC-funded study "Bay Area Food Entrepreneur Needs Assessment" to assess needs to commercial kitchens, co-packing and other professional services. Shortly after, he partnered with Iso Rabins of forageSF to develop the Forage Kitchen, a crowd-funded project to build an incubator kitchen in San Francisco for artisan food businesses.

Reserve your spot today for a seat at the table of this informative discussion.

Light refreshments will be served and there will be plenty of opportunity for Q&A.

More information about the California Homemade Food Act:

As part of a growing movement to localize food systems and stimulate small-scale food production, SELC proposed that the State of California allow for the sale of certain homemade food products, namely: baked goods (but with no cream or meat fillings), jams and jellies, granola and other dry cereal, popcorn, waffle cones, nut mixes, chocolate covered non-perishables (such as nuts and dried fruit), roasted coffee, dried herbs, dried tea, dried fruit, honey and candy. You can read more about the bill that was just signed into law here.