Legislation introduced this afternoon at the Board of Supervisors would be big news for San Francisco’s street food vendors, who have been sounding the alarm since February that new city rules could drive them out of business or push them to operate outside the law entirely.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder’s bill would make it easier to run a licensed food business from a home kitchen, and has support from supervisors Shamann Walton, Myrna Melgar, Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen and Bilal Mahmood.
The legislation will sit for 30 days and then be assigned to a committee, which will vote on whether to send it with recommendation to the full board.
“We should be creating pathways for successful small businesses to grow, not putting those pathways out of reach,” said Fielder as she introduced the legislation.
“The bottom line is simple: street vendors are small businesses. They are entrepreneurs and they are an important part of our neighborhoods and our culture.”
Mission District street vendors said that the Department of Public Health’s new regulations, drafted in March, would make them buy or rent equipment that they cannot afford.
Equally safe, less expensive regulations already exist, they say, in the form of Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation Program (MEHKO) state legislation that has already been adopted by nearby counties like Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa, and the city of Berkeley.
The difference between city rules, which were adopted earlier this year, and MEHKO is largely about equipment. Under city regulation, many vendors would have to prove that they were doing their cooking and food preparation at certified commissary kitchens, which charge an average of $1,000 a month.
Under MEHKO, street vendors can get their home kitchens certified for small-scale preparation by agreeing to annual inspections, and obtaining a food managing certification and food-handling training.
Fielder began working on bringing MEHKO to San Francisco months ago.
In mid-July, Fielder requested the budget and legislative analyst to create a report evaluating the cost and other impacts of establishing the MEHKO program in San Francisco. Fielder’s office confirmed on Monday that they have not received the report yet.
Setting up MEHKO took some work, said Olga Zuniga, deputy director of environmental health for Santa Cruz County, which launched a pilot program in 2024. The home kitchen inspections would require the collaboration of multiple city agencies, such as the health department, Department of Buildings Inspection and the fire department.
But, Zuniga added, county officials were already doing some home kitchen inspections because of 2013’s Cottage Food Operation, a state law which allows Californians to sell shelf-stable foods (popcorn, jam, dried fruit) prepared at home.
While adopting MEHKO’s standards required new forms and training because of the more complex preparation that goes into selling perishable food, Zuniga called the program a success, and said the agency has moved to recommend Santa Cruz make it permanent.
Contra Costa County’s health department also adopted MEHKO, said Vanessa Cordier, a environmental health specialist at Contra Costa’s health department.
“Initially, the pilot was intended to identify challenges, complaints,” said Cordier, about a two-year pilot her county implemented in 2024.
“After two years, we had minimal issues come up. I’d say it’s a success because it gave people an opportunity to open up a business.”
Leila Ovando, director of food justice equity at Nuestra Causa, described Fielder’s legislation as a critical step towards supporting business at the smallest level. “For too long, talented food entrepreneurs, many of them migrants, working-class people, and families simply trying to build something of their own, have faced enormous financial and regulatory barriers just to participate in our local food economy,” Ovando wrote in a statement.
A vibrant community of street vendors, said Catherine Brinkley, a professor in human ecology at UC Davis, also benefits a city in ways that go well beyond food.
“Studies have shown that street food vendors are economic amplifiers. They bring dollars in and they activate streets, making them safer,” said Brinkley. “Some cities strategically create street food vending corridors or blocks in order to create economic development. So what local jurisdictions should do is work with their local vendors.”
