With Lemonade Stand Bailout, Country Time Turns Lemons Into Cash

The coronavirus has given us all our fair share of lemons this year — but in this case, it’s America’s youngest entrepreneurs who are feeling the economic squeeze as the pandemic forces them to abandon a summer tradition that would turn all those lemons into lemonade.

If you’re missing your quintessential neighborhood lemonade stand this summer, you’re not alone. Many kids have yet to set up shop this year due to the coronavirus crisis and ongoing social distancing guidelines.

The rest of the summer doesn’t look promising, either.

While most lemonade stands make about $20-30 per day, some kids run their stands like well-oiled machines, sometimes making nearly $1,000 in one summer.

Others — like 6-year-old Reece Tobias of Point Pleasant Boro, New Jersey — sometimes do it to support good causes. Reece recently set up a lemonade stand to raise money to buy toys for kids at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

While we certainly miss refreshing lemonade picked up from the neighborhood kids, the forces behind these mini businesses are missing a lucrative — and sometimes their only — source of revenue.

Enter Country Time.

Owned by Kraft Heinz, Country Time is arguably one of the most recognizable names in the lemonade business. And it’s taken note of the economic pain of the pandemic on lemonade stands everywhere.

The company this week launched its Littlest Bailout Relief Fund, a nod to the federal Payment Protection Plan intended to keep U.S. small businesses afloat.

Like the PPP, the Littlest Bailout will send stimulus checks to some of the kids unable to open their lemonade stands this year due to the coronavirus.

Andrew Deckert, brand manager at Country Time, said that by providing aid to the smallest of our country’s small businesses, the company hopes to preserve lemonade stands by rewarding honest work and entrepreneurship.

Country Time also hopes the fund will put a little juice back into the nation’s economy.

“The small business government bailouts helped some not-so-small companies, and Country Time hopes to help a real small business near and dear to us,” Deckert said in a statement. “Due to social distancing guidelines, lemonade stands aren’t what they used to be, and we want to help kids foster their entrepreneurial spirit by offering a small relief to those who can’t operate their lemonade stands this summer.”

Deckert said Country Time hopes the bailout fund can offset the loss of revenue from a lemonade stand. It can be saved or, better yet, spent to invest in the local economy.

This isn’t the first time Country Time has stepped up to help young entrepreneurs.

In 2018, the company launched Legal-Ade, which helped kids across the country pay permit fees and fines on their lemonade stands due to outdated permit laws.

Legal-Ade also prompted legislation in several U.S. states, including Colorado and Texas, to legalize lemonade stands by excluding them from businesses that need a permit to operate.

Through Aug. 12, parents and their children age 14 or younger can apply to the Littlest Bailout Relief Fund by submitting a maximum 255-character essay. Kids will then have a chance to receive $100 bailouts in the form of Visa gift cards and a commemorative check.

No purchase is necessary to apply for the Littlest Bailout Relief Fund. According to the official contest rules, there's a limit of one entry per household, and 1,000 winners will be selected at random.

Parents and kids should visit www.countrytimebailout.com to apply.