Madison Aument: For 91.9 KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument. This is Economics IE.
Riverside County was the first to adopt a state law allowing people to operate kitchens out of their homes. The law’s adoption in Riverside County has spurred a wave of Latino home cooks across the state.
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez is a freelance journalist and a staff reporter at the Riverside Record. Hernandez joins me today to talk about his reporting on the program for the De Los section of the LA Times.
Well, hi, Daniel. Thanks for joining me.
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez: Thank you for having me.
Madison Aument: I want to start just with: how did the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations program get started?
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez: Yeah, so this type of informal, home-based restaurant has always been around, especially in Southern California and especially among the Latino community. But these businesses have always been in the shadows. They’ve always had to keep their businesses down low to avoid being found by local governments, who could potentially either shut them down or give them fines for doing this type of illegitimate business.
So advocates, starting in 2014, began this push to legitimize the practice. And by 2017, they ended up teaming up with a Coachella Valley assembly member — former Coachella Valley Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia — to introduce this legislation here in California. He called it his “barrio legislative agenda” because he himself grew up with these types of businesses in his neighborhood.
Then it quickly went through all of the legislative processes, and it got signed by former Governor Jerry Brown in 2018. It went into effect in 2019, and five months later, Riverside County was the first to adopt this program.
Madison Aument: So once this was launched — the MEHKO program in Riverside County — how did it lower the barrier for people to conduct business?
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez: Yeah, the cost of starting up a brick-and-mortar business is so expensive, and it’s especially expensive for those who want to jump into this type of industry for the first time. So this business model eliminates that major hurdle of needing to rent out a space, hire employees, and do everything required to have a brick-and-mortar business.
But it still requires business owners to follow all of the other health codes like any other restaurant. You still need to show health inspectors that your business kitchen is separate from your home kitchen — like your actual, eat-at-the-dinner-table kitchen. You need to go through yearly inspections. You need to go through health trainings just to get the permits to start up this business.
And the business itself — the whole program — has this mechanism built in place to prevent these home kitchens from competing with brick-and-mortars. So they limit you to 90 meals a week, and your gross annual sales are capped at $100,000.
So this program lowers the barrier of entry for people who want to get started in this type of industry and jump into having restaurants, but don’t necessarily have the money to do a traditional brick-and-mortar.
Madison Aument: What are some of the statistics on MEHKO programs in California?
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez: You know, in California, the law itself gives cities and counties the option to adopt this program. So in the last six years of its existence, about three-fifths have adopted some form or version of the program.
In Riverside County alone, they’ve permitted more than 300 of these businesses all around the region. But this still leaves out 40% of California residents without some sort of way to start their own legitimate MEHKO business. Especially in San Bernardino County — they have not introduced this legislation within the county yet.
Madison Aument: So who’s benefiting the most from Riverside County specifically adopting this program?
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez: Definitely women, people of color, immigrants, and even customers. Data from the COOK Alliance — which is the biggest nonprofit really advocating for MEHKOs — recently did a study, and they found that 79% of the business owners are people of color, 70% are women, and half of the businesses are immigrant-owned.
And 97% of these businesses have never received any formal complaint, including even a health code violation. So even customers are feeling happy and healthy.
Madison Aument: Is there anything else you want to add?
Daniel Eduardo Hernandez: No, not at all. Thank you for having me.
Madison Aument: Economics IE is supported by the Novak Family. You can find this segment on our website at kvcr.org. For KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument.
