Posted on 01/30/2014 8:19:19 AM PST by servo1969
The government has pulled the plug on an 11-year-old Illinois baker’s oven.
A day after a local newspaper ran a story about the young and ambitious Chloe Stirling, who operated a cupcake business out of her parents’ kitchen, the local health department came calling.
“They called and said they were shutting us down,” Heather Stirling, Chloe’s mother, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Officials told Stirling Chloe could continue selling cupcakes on the condition that the family “buy a bakery or build her a kitchen separate from the one we have.”
“Obviously, we can’t do that,” Heather Stirling told reporters. “We’ve already given her a little refrigerator to keep her things in, and her grandparents bought her a stand mixer.”
The elder Stirling said that she was willing to get her daughter any necessary licenses or permits to operate a business, but could not meet the health department’s other demands.
“But a separate kitchen? Who can do that?” asked an astonished Stirling.
When reporters approached Amy Yeager, a health department spokeswoman, about the county’s decision to shut down Chloe’s business, she said that she was doing it for the sake of the public.
“The rules are the rules. It’s for the protection of the public health,” Yeager said, according to the Post-Dispatch. “The guidelines apply to everyone.”
“People will react how they choose to react,” she added. “But it is our job.”
Chloe originally started selling the frosted cakes under the name “Hey, Cupcake” to save up for a car when she turns sixteen.
And before the government took her oven mitts, the sixth grader charged $10 for a dozen cupcakes and $2 for each specialty cupcake.
However, she was also known to donate her time and sprinkles to charity.
When a boy in her school was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, she donated cupcakes to helpraise money for his treatment. Adding a personal touch, she made them orange and blue because he “was a really big Cubs fan.”
Her largest order ever, amounting to 220 cupcakes, was also for a cancer fundraiser.
#22
If they ever did, I’m sure the board of ‘Cupcakes and Pastries Workers of America - Local 1’ took care of that.
God, I want my country back!
There appears to be one on every thread.
I guess...
Amy Yeager needs a beat down.
I guess for the same reason I let/encouraged my daughter to sell lemonade on the sidewalk - because I was a crappy parent. What? Do you need a f**king government titanian bubble around you so you'll feel safe and can sleep at night? Need your own food taster to make sure you're never poisoned? Sheesh, lighten up.
Who's paying taxes on this income?? It cannot be construed as a hobby. She's been doing it for 2 years.
No matter if dimes or dollars, they're both a homemade product.
"Who's paying taxes on this income?? It cannot be construed as a hobby. She's been doing it for 2 years."
Are you sure you're on the correct forum? You want to tax a little girl because she sells cupcakes for a profit, while donating some to charities? BTW, you can always contact our so benevolent IRS to report her if you think she should be paying her "fair share".
Do you really not see how ridiculous you look? I'm done - rant on.
We need to make sure the government can dictate every little aspect of our lives, and create the most business crippling regulations, such that an 11 year old can't even sell homemade cupcakes or run a lemonade stand.
But, you may ask, "Are we certain the government has our best interest in mind?"
Sure you can trust the government, just ask an Ind......er wait, what?
Oh, apparently according to Indians (or at least those with Indian FR names) you can trust the government to always look out for you, nanny you, and make decisions for you in your best interest, whether you want them to or not - tis all good.
What a great kid.
I HATE THESE PEOPLE!
Nanny State PING!
Thanks for the ping!
Government at ALL levels has become the enemy of the people.
Way past time for pushback.
I'm starting to wonder how long my fellow citizens are going to continue putting up with this kind of trash.
I made $4 grand mowing the neighbors' lawns with my parents' lawnmower.
Nobody paid tax on anything because whatever I earned had already been taxed once, twice or three times already.
Why do you care?
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