I'm sure I've posted enough about my situation that most of you are tired of hearing lol, but for those who don't know I'll will briefly go over it. I live in Hampton, VA and in all other cities in VA, you are allowed to bake from home with a bunch of legalities. Well in my City you are not able to due to Hampton having it's own food codes. (At least that's what my City's health department said). This has forced me to rent a kitchen for 20.00 an hour! I am barely making any profit, well most times I am just breaking even, but I can't stop since I got into a lease for an office (So noone had to come to my house). I rented the office space when I was told originally that I could bake from home and a month later I was told I couldn't. So I am basically stuck in this predicament. I add the kitchen expense into my cake prices, but it has made my cake prices so expensive that I am losing customers and not generating any new ones, when they can just go down the street into another city where it's legal to bake from home and pay someone a much cheaper price for the same cake. We plan on moving next summer to a city that allows home baking, but that is no guarantee since we are shelling out more money than we are making. I have been researching who I can write to in my city to get the food code laws changed and I have no idea where to begin. If I am able to bake from my home I will be able to profit all of the money I am currently paying to rent for kitchen space. If anyone could help me get in the right direction, I would so greatly appreciate it. Thank you for reading and for any responses!

If I were you I would go to the next city council meeting (held the second Wednesday of each month) and bring up this issue in person. Draft your speech in advance and keep it concise since there is a 3 minute time limit.

http://www.hampton.gov/council/faqs.html

Thank you very much! I actually wrote the city council and our mayor this morning and they responded very quickly and courteously. They said they are looking into the matter, but thank you for the advice, I will be attending the next meeting! : )