A version of the following commentary appeared in the Columbia Missourian.
Loneliness is increasing in America. A 2023 report by the U.S. Surgeon General’s office documented the decline in social connections between people in recent decades. From 2003 to 2020, every measure tracked showed an increase in isolation and a decrease in personal interactions. For example, “social engagement with friends” decreased by 20 hours per month for the average American during the observation period. The trend started before 2003, though. Robert Putnam first documented these changes in a 1995 essay that in 2000 was expanded into the book Bowling Alone, about the increasing disconnection in American communities.
I don’t know if Kathy Kite, of Harrisburg, Missouri, ever read Bowling Alone, but she clearly noticed the decline in social connectedness in her community. And unlike most people, she decided to do something about it. After the restaurant she worked in closed, Kite noticed that the restaurant regulars had nowhere to meet up in their town. In May, she began offering a free breakfast to any neighbor who wanted to stop in, talk, and eat. She never charged any money; she never told anyone it was a restaurant; she never pretended that she had passed any inspections. She just served her friends and neighbors a meal that allowed them all to converse about anything, everything, and nothing all at once while breaking bread together, as has been done since the beginning of humanity.
At the Columbia/Boone County Health Department (CBCHD), they apparently don’t care about what the Surgeon General, Robert Putnam, or anyone else thinks about the benefits of breaking bread together. There are rules, and those rules require permits. Kite has been informed by the health department that her work qualifies as a restaurant, and she needs to install a commercial kitchen and pass regular inspections if she wishes to continue. That would cost her thousands of dollars.
The voluntary tip jar Kite has set out was cited by CBCHD as evidence that she is operating a restaurant, but is that jar any different from your friends bringing a bottle of wine to your house when they come over for dinner? How is the bottle-of-wine thank-you gift any different from voluntarily leaving a few dollars? The only difference between what Kite does and you having your friends over to your home for dinner is the frequency of the gatherings. Do we want CBCHD or other health agencies to be able to tell us that one gathering a month at your home is allowed, but once a week means health inspections are required?
Fortunately for Kite (and for all Missourians who think this is ridiculous governmental overreach), lawyers with the Goldwater Institute have agreed to represent her and fight the regulatory requirements as interpreted by the health department.
The recently released fifth report in my Free-Market Municipality series for the Show-Me Institute covers public health and sanitation and discusses food-service codes and regulations. As the actions by the CBCHD demonstrate, these local rules have gone too far, and you need not be a radical libertarian to think so. People know the difference between a restaurant and food at your neighbor’s house. Nobody is claiming that a restaurant or food truck shouldn’t have to pass a health inspection. But the confusing array of regulations and permit requirements needs to be reined in. The beloved school and church bake sales of a time not long ago have been (mostly) regulated away. Raw milk can be sold directly from a farm or via delivery, but it can’t be sold at a store. Food trucks (which are regulated, as they should be) are banned by some cities and allowed in others. Missouri’s “cottage” food law allows home sales of some foods like baked goods, but not most others. (CBCHD cited the cottage food law in its letter to Kite, saying the food she was serving was not allowed under the law, even though she isn’t selling anything.)
Local public health departments have an important role to play in public safety, but we saw during COVID how some of them were only too happy to strictly regulate our daily actions. If Kathy Kite needs a permit to serve her neighbors food, then there is no limit to what the CBCHD might try to regulate next. The isolation and loneliness spreading around America has dangerous implications for health, too—specifically with mental-health issues like depression. Kathy Kite tried to do something about that, but local government is determined not to let her.
