Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn directed the LA County Department of Public Health to issue new guidelines that will allow restaurants to sell unprepared food and operate safely during the COVID-19 crisis.

Under the “Safer at Home” Public Health Order, restaurants in L.A. County have been ordered to stop all dine-in operations to slow the spread of COVID-19. While restaurants can deliver food or do take out, many restaurants have opened their doors as pop-up markets as a way to keep their businesses operating and meet the needs of local residents. However, this week the L.A. County Department of Public Health has ordered many of these pop-up markets operating in restaurants to close, because they do not have permits under state law to operate as grocery stores.

Hahn read in an urgency motion directing the L.A. County Department of Public Health to issue guidelines to allow restaurants to sell additional food items not normally served at restaurants, like whole uncut produce, eggs, uncooked meat, etc. as a part of their delivery, take-out, or curbside pickup operations.

“Like so many other business owners, these small restaurants have been put in a challenging situation, and they are trying to come up with creative solutions to keep their doors open, pay their employees, and feed their communities,” Hahn said. “These restaurants want to be part of the solution. To aid them in this effort, I have asked the Department of Public Health to give them guidelines, so that restaurants can sell produce and unprepared food and continue to operate in a way that is safe for their workers and their customers.”

During Tuesday’s virtual Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Hahn read in an urgency motion directing the Department of Public Health to develop and issue guidelines for restaurants that allow them to safely offer additional items for delivery or take out, (like whole uncut produce), within the confines of state law, licensing requirements, and existing permits, and in coordination with all social distancing and public health directives. Because this is an urgency motion, it was voted on immediately and passed unanimously.

Read the motion here.