Health Department Shuts Down 11-Year-Old Entrepreneur

It’s very important for young people to learn about real life as soon as possible. Back in the day, that meant learning how to work hard, how to succeed, how to manage finances… you know—how to become an entrepreneur, a business owner, an inventor, or the like.

These days, teaching children about the real world has more to do with explaining how all their efforts will be for naught when the civil government swoops in and either eats up all their profits or forces them to stop making any.

Just the other day, eleven-year-old Chloe Stirling got an early education in government bureaucracy. She had started a very small homegrown cupcake business from her parents’ kitchen in Illinois. Her largest total order was 220 cupcakes (for a fundraiser to fight cancer, by the way). She was saving up money to buy a car in a few years. Modest goals and modest methods, but very good ones I think we can all agree.

Well, not all of us apparently. A few days after a local newspaper wrote a story about the young entrepreneur, the local health department came knocking. They said that Chloe Stirling had to shut down her business because her kitchen did not meet health code specifications. They told Chloe’s parents that they could add on an additional kitchen in their house if they wanted to continue supporting Chloe’s business.

They had gotten Chloe a separate fridge for her ingredients and a grandmother had chipped in on a stand mixer, but an additional kitchen was not in the budget. So, until further notice, this young entrepreneur has had her business drive and community spirit extinguished in the name of safety and “the rules.”

Just whom these rules are meant to protect, I don’t know. Anyone eating Chloe’s cupcakes would obviously be eating “at their own risk.” And no one had complained. No one probably would. Does the health department honestly believe that a home kitchen is less wholesome or sanitary than the industrial blood parasite factories that make most of the food we eat?

I want my children to show initiative and drive, but socialism and bureaucracy just saps the spirit of an entrepreneur. These are not the lessons I want to teach my children.

23 responses

  1. Well first problem is she lives in Illinois… My home state too. The Government is way out of control here in Illinois. Maybe the praises of young Cloe should be song a little higher so more people here about it…. perhaps more good can yet come of this. There maybe a local bakery that will donate a few kitchen hours to this girl when needed (and she can learn the back side of what a bakery needs to do to keep up with state laws – in case she continues on in this field later in life she will be way ahead of the others). Or perhaps a local Church has a kitchen area (used for catering events that she can used time to time… Just some thoughts on how to let this young lady learn and grow verse being crushed by the B.S. of big government.

    • Very good ideas! but someone was offended by this young lady, and will probably go to great lengths to stop her, we shall see.

  2. I’ve been in the food service industry for over a decade. I went to culinary school right out of high school. I’ve taken the ServSafe certification test 3 times over for food service certification in management. I work for a public school district and they are very strict on food safety. And I can say this. There are useful and necessary rules that are enforced by the health department. But there are also many “rules” that I scratch my head and think, “There is no way someone that works in the kitchen wrote this.” Because they don’t get what it’s like. This is just too far. She’s 11 for crying out loud. I almost expected them to barge in saying she required a business license authorized by the state and a tax on top of it.

  3. I’m sure little Chloe can get her business back up and running.
    All she needs to do is purchase the right commodities.
    A union shop for a start.
    Some public official to smooth the way for inspections.
    Some donations to the Illinois Democrat Committee.
    Just the basics is all she needs.

  4. And when Chloe’s parents try to get a permit for a second kitchen that would be approved by the county health department, they’ll run up against the city planning department which will prohibit a commercial enterprise in a residential neighborhood.

    • Though what you are saying is very true…. I think Chloe’s parents will just buy her a car before adding onto their house to have a second kitchen. Something tells me it would be way cheaper. Then have her be active in Girls Scouts to keep pushing her good values..

  5. Apparently the Health Department does not have enough to keep then busy and are looking for ways to get their name in the paper. They had rather pick on a child than on someone who will fight back, or sot hey thought.

  6. The little girl should stick it to the Health Dept by continuing to bake cupcakes but instead of selling them she should simply have a suggested donation amount per dozen. Another lesson is to not allow a story to be written about such an endeavor. Unfortunately, publicity can be a double-edged sword. By the way – Bureaucrats suck – and Amy Yeager certainly qualifies!

  7. When I was 11 I sold deep fried peanuts. Bought the peanuts in 50 lb bags. Took the red skins off. My mother deep fried them and I put them in little bags and sold them for 10 cents each. I bought all my own clothes and whatever else I wanted. I would never be allowed to do that today.

  8. Health Dept? What a joke! Look what the Gov’t health dept. permit let alone gov’t anything. Chemtrais, blood and pus in mild permitted by certain levels by gov’t., Medications not thoroughly and properly tested, etc,etc,etc.

  9. Oooops! Yahoo deleted me again, as usual. I posted how gov’t let’s unsafe standards pass and to go against this girl? Watch this get deleted too.

  10. In some cities there are facilities that rent the use of inspected and approved kitchens to small businesses. Maybe Chloe has one nearby.

    • Your suggestion isn’t fixing the basic problem.
      What it is doing is supporting an out of control government.
      If we had accurate statistics on the number of cases of food poisoning caused by home prepared food as well as the number of cases from restaurant and factory prepared food I think you might be surprised to find that the larger percentage of the problem is from outside the home.
      Health departments were originally established to ensure a wholesome [i.e. poison and disease free] food supply. One of the chief ways to finance this department these days is fee based inspections. This has the dual effect of reducing the need for additional tax revenue [but burying the costs in the cost of doing business for the party being inspected] and, through the imposition of unreasonably high standards for basic equipment [such as only “approved” all stainless steel sinks and kitchen furnishings when there are other perfectly safe and less expensive alternatives], preventing enterprising individuals from entering the “business” by putting such a high cost on the front end.
      Baked Goods Sales have been a traditional and popular means for many community organizations to raise money. The ~assault~ on these activities by over-zealous bureaucrats have done nothing to improve the safety of our food supply but they have done immeasurable damage to the ability of these service minded organizations to improve the life of the community.
      What you are suggesting only puts profits in the pockets of the operators of these kitchen facilities. The needs of the communities would be better served if the money actually went to the projects for which money is being raised.

  11. It is called Ignorance and dumification of the government the major requirement for them to be hired is a total lack of
    common sense, if you show the intelligence of a slub you are unqualified for a job with the government . This is even
    more true for the enforcement agencies of the government at all levels.

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