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Setting up a lemonade stand and selling the delicious ice cold drink to people who pass by during the summer is a childhood tradition that many of us have partaken in. It’s a fun way for young kids to interact with the neighbors and learn about business all while making a little bit of money. This was especially true for one 8 year old boy in Missouri named Jacob.
All he had wanted for his birthday was a lemonade stand so that he could raise money to help buy his mother an air conditioner for her car. While she loved the idea, she urged him to use any money he earned for a more meaningful idea that was closer to his heart, and so he chose to donate it to a local church missionary group instead.
According to Gina Martin, Jacob’s mother, as soon as his lemonade stand was finally set up, he busied himself selling 50 cent cups of freshly squeezed lemonade. From the start his business was going well and everyone was happy. That all changed one Friday afternoon when an angry looking man approached Jacob’s stand. The man aggressively demanded to know whether or not they had a food handler’s permit.
Sensing the man’s hostility, Gina sent her son inside while she talked to the man. She asked him if he worked for the city, to which he replied that he did not, but that as a customer he wanted to know who he should go to in case he got sick from drinking the lemonade.
As she dealt with the irate man, Gina was told that in Clay County Missouri, where she resided, a temporary food permit is needed for anyone who is preparing, serving, or selling food. The cost for a permit lasting 1-3 days is $50, but that’s only if you apply more than 2 weeks in advance.
Even though the customer wasn’t a city employee, he nonetheless insisted that Jacob needed a permit to sell lemonade from his stand. If he failed to get one, the man warned Gina that he’d call the police and have them it shut down. Meanwhile, another person had joined the man and they both started to get angry and more confrontational over the issue.
Not sure what she should do or whether the man was even telling the truth, Gina turned to Facebook and posted about the issue to see if anyone could help her out. People saw her post and shared it with their friends and family, and before long the community had mobilized behind Jacob and his mother.
The next day Jacob woke up to a bunch of people in the street outside of his house. At first, he thought there was an emergency but then he realized that all the people were actually customers who had come to buy lemonade from him!
Not only had the entire fire department come with their ladder engines, so had the county sheriff, local police, metro security, EMTs, and ambulances. All the emergency responders in the area had come out in full force to support him!
Before they left, they even gave Jacob a seal of approval and temporary permit. It was really just a piece of paper with the word “permit” written on it next to pictures of police and fire department badges, but it meant the world to Jacob and his mother.
By the end of the summer, he raised an impressive $343 which he donated to missionaries at his church. Perhaps more importantly, he learned that he had a whole lot of support behind what he was doing and that no single angry busy body could shut him down for purely hypothetical and spiteful reasons.
Watch the video below for the full story:
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