California nonprofits back bill to expand fireworks sales. Here’s how NYE sales would help them

Nonprofits based in rural communities like Stockton rely on funding from fireworks sales to operate.

Smaller organizations often have trouble competing for federal grants, TNT Fireworks spokesman Dennis Revell said. TNT offers nonprofits a way to generate funds by partnering with them to sell the fireworks and share the revenue.

“The reality is that the demand for their services and programs are there and have never been higher,” Revell, said.

But the opportunity to sell fireworks is also competitive. California is one of the most restrictive states in terms of fireworks sales due to wildfire risk. State law says that licenses to sell fireworks are only valid June 28 through July 6. Cities can further restrict those sales.

In Stockton, sales are limited to certain hours from June 28 through July 4. Bread of Life Ministries, which is based in the central valley city, has previously won the lottery to sell fireworks but have not been so lucky in the past two years. They, along with 1,500 other nonprofits, advocated to extend the legal selling date of fireworks and to allow for sales around New Year’s Eve holiday.

WHO SELLS FIREWORKS

Bread of Life Ministries started selling fireworks in 2014.

Executive Director Chris Johnson said the process to be able to sell is very complicated and competitive. Nonprofit organizations have to submit an application stating who they are, what they do and how they provide for their respective communities. Documentation of their program’s success is also required.

All eligible organizations are then put in a lottery and those who are drawn are able to sell for Independence Day.

Johnson said Bread of Life Ministries was able to sell in 2021 and 2022, but there is a rule that prohibits organizations from selling more than two years in a row.

As a result, they weren’t able to sell in 2023 and were not selected in the lottery in 2024.

In 2022 alone, the organization was able to make $25,000 in profit, Johnson said. So losing out on the opportunity this year was a hit to their annual budget.

FOR THE COMMUNITY, BY THE COMMUNITY

In their Stockton facility, Bread of Life Ministries receives and packs up food for distribution.

After packaging the food into boxes with about $150 worth of groceries, they will then drive that out to different local nonprofits they support. PREVAIL, Quail Lakes Baptist Church and Carson Oaks Community Church are just a few with which they partner.

“The mission of Bread of Life is people who work, try to work, or are out of work, but just can’t make ends meet,” Johnson said.

Who they serve ranges from young couples, single parents, college students, ex-prisoners, and people who are transitioning out of being homeless.

Johnson said that since they are a faith-based organization, they not only want to give out food, but hope too.

“We want people to feel important, loved and wanted,” he said.

Instead of just handing out boxes of food and moving on down the line, he said Bread of Life Ministries volunteers take time to talk to their clients and get to know who they are.

A common thing they say is “Hey, we love you and we’re so glad you’re here. Sorry, you’re struggling, but we want to come beside you. This is temporary,” Johnson said.

Bread of Life Ministries helps around 70,000 families a year and, “we’re infusing this directly to the neighborhoods that need it the most,” he said.

While they do try to stay local, Johnson said that “whoever’s in need, we don’t turn anybody away.”

FIREWORKS IN WILDFIRE COUNTRY

Assembly Bill 3065, introduced by California State Assembly member Eduardo Garcia, would have authorized “the retail sale of certified safe and sane fireworks from 9 a.m. on December 26 to midnight of January 1.”

This would have opened up more opportunities for nonprofits to be selected to sell fireworks.

The fire threat would have additionally been mitigated since “the period between Christmas and New Year’s is typically one of the wetter times of the year and less prone to combustion compared to other times,” Revell said.

However, for all intents and purposes the bill is dead. “It passed out of the Assembly Emergency Management Committee without any no votes and went to Appropriations and it was put on the suspense file,” Revell said.

Although 1,500 nonprofits, including Bread of Life Ministries, sent letters of support, the bill did not advance.

In his letter to the Assembly, Johnson said that every New Year’s Eve, his community watches as a full array of illegal pyrotechnics are displayed.

Extending the selling date would present a legal and safer alternative to what is becoming a growing use of illegal fireworks on New Year’s Eve, Revell said.

“It’s money that people are going to spend anyways, might as well put it towards something good,” Johnson said.