Friday, June 17, 2011

kids fined for selling lemonade -- wanna weigh in?

Children selling lemonade near the U.S. Open in Montgomery County were fined $500 by the county Health Department for operating without a vendor's license. They were told to shut down.

The children were donating 50% of their proceeds to a charity helping other kids suffering from pediatric cancer.

From the WUSA9 report:

Jennifer Hughes, the director of permitting for the county, says it's technically illegal to run even the smallest lemonade stand in the county, but inspectors usually don't go looking for them. She said this one was unusually large. Hughes also says they've warned all kinds of other vendors they couldn't operate near the US Open because of concerns about traffic and safety.

But that did little to console Carrie Marriott. "Does every kid who sells lemonade now have to register with the county?" she asked the inspector.

"Cute little kids making five or ten dollars is a little bit different than making hundreds. You've got coolers and coolers here," the inspector responded.
Do your kids operating their lemonade stands with a license? Thoughts?

Image Credit: Gawker.tv

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should read "Children Exploited, Parents Fined for Operating as an Unlicensed Food/beverage Vendor" - really.

(cool) progeny said...

Do you have a link? While I 100% see your point, I'm not sure that's what was happening this particularly case. And if it was, shame on the parents.

That said -- lemonade stands are a piece of childhood americana. A pastime. A child should be able to hold a lemonade stand without fear of being fined...

The question is where do you draw the line in terms of regulation.