Larimer County 4‑H Foundation says ranch changed food rules, threatened new fee for carnival

Cindy Buckhart, president of the Larimer County 4‑H Foundation, told the Larimer County Board of County Commissioners on April 15 that the foundation only learned late about a requirement that event food at the county ranch be commercially prepackaged and sourced from licensed distributors and that the policy had not been communicated to the foundation until February 2023.

Buckhart said that the foundation and its 4‑H clubs have held bake sales and carnival food at ranch events for decades and disputed an assertion in an email from county staff that the restriction was “long standing.” “Long standing is that the foundation had been having a bake sale and carnival food for 64 years,” she said. “That is long standing, not 2 years.”

Buckhart said the foundation continued in 2023 to operate as it had for the previous 63 years and that there was no formal communication about…