Kraft Heinz to Pay Fines of Young Lemonade Stand Entrepreneurs

Lemonade stand fine

Since 2007, “Lemonade Day” founder Michael Holthouse has been empowering today’s youth to become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. Over a million kids a year participate in the Day, which teaches them the basics of entrepreneurship through running a lemonade stand.

Running a lemonade at least once as a kid is an American past-time, but in a world where government over-regulates everything, kids have found their stands being shut down. It’s more than a bit ridiculous that there are literally hundreds of stories of four-year-olds are having stands (usually in residential communities) cited for “operating without a permit.” (RELATED: Vietnam Veteran Fined By His City for Flying American Flags Outside His Business… But He Won’t Back Down!).

Depending on the State, lemonade stands have been shut down on archaic laws requiring a permit for such a minuscule business, or health code violations. It goes without saying that the cost of obtaining those permits would greatly outweigh the profit one can expect to make selling lemonade for 25 cents a pop.

In response, County Time Lemonade is encouraging young entrepreneurs to continue business as usual. If authorities get in their way, Country Time is offering to foot the legal bills.

According to Fox News:

Kids getting busted and fined by cops for running neighborhood lemonade stands without permits could come to an end this summer—thanks to food giant Kraft Heinz. The brand’s Country Time Lemonade unit announced Thursday that it will personally defend and pay for any fines that children get for trying to sell the summertime drink.

“We recently came across a story of a kid getting her lemonade stand shut down for legal reasons, which had to be an urban myth. After looking into it and seeing even more instances, we realized these weren’t myths, they were real stories,” Adam Butler, general manager for beverage and nuts for Kraft Heinz, told Fox Business.

Just last week, three brothers, ages 2 to 6, from Stapleton, Colorado, got their lemonade stand shut down by Denver cops after several vendors at a nearby arts festival called the police to complain the kids were undercutting their prices.

In the case of those three brothers, they committed the “crime” of not obtaining a “temporary vending permit.” Not only that, they technically weren’t even operating a “business,” because all their profits were supposed to go to charity.

In response, Heinz (through CountryTime) is creating a “Legal-Ade” fund, which will cover the permit fee or fine for aspiring young entrepreneurs, up to $300. Additionally, they’ll donate up to $500,000 to help kids with their entrepreneurial pursuits next year and beyond. They released the following amusing video announcing the initiative: 

When conservatives argue against excessive regulations, they really ought to point to absurd causes like these, which almost seem like they’re satirical. There are tens of thousands of regulations on the books, and most of them ain’t much better.

Should kids be able to sell lemonade without government interference? Share your thoughts with us below! 

By Matt

Matt is the co-founder of Unbiased America and a freelance writer specializing in economics and politics. He’s been published... More about Matt

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