5 minSociety
Missouri grandmother refuses to stop serving free breakfasts after health department warning
Kathy Kite of Harrisburg, Missouri, says she will keep cooking free breakfasts for her neighbors despite a county health department letter saying she needs a food permit. The Goldwater Institute has intervened, while officials say they received a complaint that food served at her home made someone ill.
A Missouri grandmother says she will not stop serving free homemade breakfasts to her neighbors, even after county health officials told her the morning tradition requires a food permit. Kathy Kite of Harrisburg, a town of fewer than 300 people, said the demand to install a commercial kitchen in her 115-year-old home is unreasonable and that she intends to keep cooking for the community she calls her family.
«I'm not gonna stop providing for my community,» Kite said. «I wouldn't stop feeding my children, I wouldn't stop feeding my family. I'm not gonna stop feeding my community cause they are my family. This is bigger than that. It's about love and appreciation because they appreciate what I do.»
Kite began serving breakfast in May after the local gas station where she works stopped offering morning meals following the COVID-19 pandemic. Regular customers kept asking for food, so she invited them to her home. What started as a small gathering of a few regulars soon grew, with residents stopping by for coffee and conversation about farming, weather and childhood memories. Local mothers began bringing their children before school.
In July, Kite received a letter from the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department stating she needed a food permit or could face legal action. Kite said the letter frightened her and that she feared jail time. «It hurt my feelings, and it upset me because I knew at that point I was afraid I was gonna go to jail because the letter stated that if I didn't stop making breakfast for my community, that I was facing fines and jail, and so I posted it on Facebook and people responded,» she said.
The health department denied that its letter threatened jail time. In a statement, a spokesperson said food permits are not required when providing food for family and friends, but a permit is required when providing food to the public, citing the Missouri food code. «At the time the complaint was received, Ms. Kite's home had an open sign, tip jar, advertised food on social media and a sign in her yard — all things that are typically associated with a food establishment,» the spokesperson said. «No citations or cease-and-desist orders were issued. We also did not threaten jail time. We sent a letter to Ms. Kite following a complaint we received that food served in her establishment made someone ill.»
Kite said the letter requires her to install a commercial kitchen in her home, which she estimates would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. «I live in a 115-year-old home. It's a beautiful home. I'm not gonna jeopardize the integrity of my home to put a commercial kitchen in to make some free burritos,» she said. She said she would welcome health officials into her home to see her cooking conditions firsthand. «Come have a burrito. I'm not doing anything wrong. I just can't understand. Come to my home, see my home, and see that my home is not dirty,» Kite said. «I don't have cats. I'm not making people sick. I am just a grandma cooking a meal for my friends and family and enjoying life.»
The Goldwater Institute, a conservative public policy group, sent a letter to the Boone County health department demanding answers about the legal reasoning behind the permit requirement. Dave Roland, the institute's director of allied litigation, said no lawsuit has been filed yet but that it remains an option. «Kathy's story is a textbook example of bureaucracy run amok,» Roland said. «Citizens should not be required to get the government's permission before offering passers-by some coffee and a bite to eat while they socialize. The government exists to protect this sort of neighborly kindness, not to punish it.»
The health department said it regularly works with individuals and businesses who want to provide free food to the community and that there are safe, allowable ways to do so with or without a permit. Kite, however, remains firm in her decision. «I'm not gonna stop feeding my community,» she said.
