Texas Chef fined for feeding the Homeless and the reason is just silly!

Texas Chef fined for feeding the Homeless and the reason is just silly!

They say that a good deed never goes unpunished.  In this case, San Antonio police dished out a healthy portion of fines to a local chef who was serving free meals to the homeless.

Chef Fined

“San Antonio city officials have messed with the wrong Texas chef.

Attorney-turned-cook and activist Joan Cheever has spent the past decade feeding the homeless from the back of her charity food truck, until earlier this month she was slapped with a $2,000 fine for her charitable efforts.

Cheever founded The Chow Train non-profit organization in 2005, preparing hot meals in her licensed mobile kitchen and serving them at city parks out of her personal pickup, which she has been using as a delivery truck because it is more maneuverable.

On April 7, Cheever and her band of volunteers were dishing out free food to those in need at Maverick Park on the outskirts of San Antonio when she was approached by four police officers on bicycles.

Speaking to ABC News, Cheever said she asked the cops, ‘What’s the problem?’ and they replied, ‘You.’

After a brief exchange with the SAPD cops, Mrs Cheever was issued a citation and a $2,000 fine for failure to serve food out of a licensed food truck.

After writing out the ticket, Cheever said the officers gave her the green light to continue distributing meals.  

San Antonio city officials stated that Cheever was cited for ‘failing to adhere to long-standing regulations that are in place to ensure public health and safety.’

City spokeswoman Di Galvan told ABC that mobile food establishment permits are not transferable from one vehicle to another.

But the hefty fine has done nothing to deter the plucky Good Samaritan from carrying out her mission to provide much-needed sustenance to the city’s poor. Her meals usually consist of a vegetable soup, a main course, such as meatball or coq au vin, and a dessert.

Since her April 7 run-in with the law, the chef has offered meals on two separate occasions at the park, each time drawing larger than usual crowds of supporters.

‘I came back to the park the following Tuesday and was met with 100 people who had candles and signs,’ Cheever said. ‘This isn’t only about The Chow Train. It’s about every non-profit and every person who wants to do a good thing, but are intimidated by the $2,000 fine and possible arrest. So we’re just going to keep rolling on.’

Cheever has retained the services of a lawyer to fight the citation.

‘I’m not going to settle and I’m not going to pay the fine and I’m not going to stop,’ a defiant Mrs Cheever declared. ‘They can come out every Tuesday and write me up a ticket and we’ll just start collecting them.’

Joan Cheever, a wife and mother, had graduated from a culinary school and was featured on celebrity cook Rachel Ray’s daytime talk show.

Besides offering gourmet meals to low-income residents of San Antonio, Cheever and her group of helpers also have delivered meals to victims of natural disasters in places like Joplin, Missouri, and Moore, Oklahoma, which were ravaged by tornadoes recently.”

It seems a bit unnecessary to fine someone who holds a license to distribute the food anyway.  Proof yet again that government gets mad when private individuals do something better than they can.  I hope that Cheever is able to defeat these ridiculous fines and can use the $2,000 for a better purpose.  Perhaps feeding the homeless?

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