The Fight for Clean Bread in Tacoma
Tacoma women mobilize to push a city sanitation ordinance through the council, battling bakers who claim wrapping bread is too expensive and technically impossible.
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The Pure Food Council of Tacoma, representing thirty-two women's organizations and 1,700 members, is currently urging the city council to adopt a market sanitation ordinance. The council aims to improve conditions in local markets and bakeries, advocating for the mandatory wrapping of bread in paraffine paper to protect it from dust and handling. Bakers have raised objections, claiming bread requires long cooling times and that paraffine is filthy or expensive. However, leading experts including State Chemist Elton Fulmer and Food Commissioner E.F. Ladd have confirmed that paraffine paper is a sanitary and effective protection. Mrs. Overton O. Ellis, chair of the committee, argues that such an ordinance is a necessary step for the city's growth and public health, noting that failing to act would be a neglect of civic duty.
“Shall Tacoma be progressive and set other cities a good example or shall it be left for some other city to take the lead in this national movement?”
This 1909 campaign for mandatory food sanitation reflects the early 20th-century push for urban consumer protections, echoing today's ongoing debates regarding food safety, corporate accountability, and the power of grassroots civic organizing in Tacoma's municipal politics.
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