Community Empowerment Matters

Many enterprising individuals happen to also be great cooks, bakers, or creators of sweet treats. Sometimes those passions will align and these individuals decide to take the steps necessary to make their passion for creating delicious goods into a business. All great businesses have to start somewhere, and often food businesses start out of the entrepreneur’s home. If you find yourself in that situation, you must be cognizant that there are laws that govern the creation and distribution of food made from your home, known as the Cottage Food Laws. These laws will allow you to make and sell food from your home without obtaining a Michigan food license. This post will explain how to comply   with the Cottage Food Laws in Michigan.   While utilizing these laws allows for one to make and sell food without a license, there are three elements to keep in mind when making food with the intent to utilize the Cottage Food Laws in Michigan: the product, the packaging, and the distribution.  

Introduction   As incomes in much of American have remained study or declined, households can no longer afford to compete in their local housing markets. Families can choose to pay an exorbitant amount of income for housing thereby leaving little for other essentials combine households thereby causing overcrowding, or simply move away. [i]   Faced with high land and housing costs, lower-income families face enormous difficulties in developing and securing affordable housing.   Enter the community land trust (“CLT”).   What Is A CLT?   A CLT is a private, nonprofit organization created to provide the community with secure affordable access to and control over land and housing.   The first modern CLT in the United States, New Communities Land Trust, was established in Albany, Georgia in 1969. Consisting of more than 5,000 acres of farmland, the CLT gave Black families an opportunity to affordably access, build on, and farm land at a time when they faced significant obstacle

If you are a part of the non-profit world, the term “conflict of interest” may be familiar to you. What might be less clear is why it should matter to your organization.   This post provides an overview of conflicts of interest through a legal lens by briefly discussing what a conflict of interest is, the legal implications, and the tax implications.   What is a Conflict of Interest?   A conflict of interest, broadly, is any situation in which a decision-maker for an organization has a financial or other interest in, or relationship with, an entity or person that does business with the organization. [1]   Legal Overview of Conflicts of Interest   There are legal restrictions on certain types of conflicts that are important for your organization to keep in mind. The law regarding conflicts of interest stems from a variety of sources: common law (law that is derived from court cases), state statutes, the federal Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, and Internal Revenue Service pu