people use church kitchens for after services...so is it ok for parishioners and not the homeless? They will have to decide before they can enforce anything like that.

It seems to me that separation is the issue here. If the state were to stay out of the church's way, the homeless would be fed. If, by chance, a group of homeless does get food poising, there will always be a civil lawyer around to help the homeless collect.

Indeed, Herb. If it's a county-run shelter, I could see the issue - county liability. But the article implies that it's all non-profits & churches that are running the affected shelters. What exactly are the limits of the Health Dept there, anyway - if the food isn't being sold in a commercial venture how is the gov't involved?

The solution to this problem is to get people like Mr Brigl brains for Christmas. Undue adhesion to the letter of regulation has got to be at least as unhealthy as home-cooked meals.

My wife makes meals several times a year for a church in DC. She uses exactly the same standards she uses for anyone who eats in her home (lucky people!). She even times her delivery of the food to the church so that it doesn't even need reheating. But her kitchen will not pass the same inspection that a professional restaurant's kitchen has to pass. She doesn't, for example, wear a hairnet.

And I think you've the right author--Dickens--but perhaps the wrong character. How about Uriah Heep instead of Scrooge? Or perhaps Tulkinghorn from the Jarndyce v. Jarndyce travesty in Bleak House?

This is essentially the state causing more harm than good in the name of wanting to do good-which pretty much makes the people in charge stupid.

Update on this story: The Fairfax County executive killed this rule, saying: "What were they thinking?" Good for him.