Outlawing church suppers has lawmakers scrambling

Monday, February 14, 2005 11:14 AM CST

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - State lawmakers are scrambling to fix a 2001 law that inadvertently outlawed the pitch-in suppers hosted by churches and civic groups that serve up homecooked dishes such as green bean casseroles and pecan pies.

Lawmakers recently learned that the law, which took full effect in January, bans potluck meals and requires nonprofit groups to hire certified food handlers to organize their meals.

State Sen. Thomas K. Weatherwax, R-Logansport, said he was pained to learn last fall from angry constituents that a food sanitation law passed by lawmakers in 2001 inadvertently threatened to bring an end to traditional community meals.

''The one thing you don't do is, you don't go to your neighbor's wife who makes this famous mincemeat pie - and she's been making it for 35 years - and try to tell her she can't make this anymore because she has got to become a certified food handler,'' he said.

Weatherwax said lawmakers never considered potlucks when they passed the bill, which requires ''food establishments'' to hire certified food handlers.

The bill was aimed at restaurants, but because it amounted to a new chapter in the law books, the historic exemption for churches and nonprofits written elsewhere in the food codes did not carry over.

The Rev. Roger Tappert, pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Indianapolis, said the idea of trying to regulate church potlucks is ''absolutely ludicrous.''

''We will do our own thing until somebody says you absolutely cannot,'' he said.

In response to the outcry, four nearly identical bills were introduced in the General Assembly this year to address the issue. The first to come to a floor vote, House Bill 1056, passed on a 95-0 vote.

Most county health departments have chosen to ignore the law rather than raid church halls and basements. Scott Gilliam, director of the food protection program for the Indiana State Department of Health, said that is perfectly acceptable.

He said ''everybody will be happy when this (new legislation) gets passed.''

While Indiana's potluck law appears destined to be dumped, community pitch-in meals have received greater scrutiny in recent years. Towns and counties in some states have banned them because of concern about food-borne illnesses.

John Livengood, the president of the Restaurant and Hospitality Association of Indiana, said restaurants would not oppose an exemption for churches and nonprofits from the certified food-handler rule.

But he said restaurants would not give their blessing to the bill either.

''You can die just as quickly from a food-borne illness at an event hosted by one of these groups as you can anyplace else,'' Livengood said.

Decatur Daily Democrat