Hit by pandemic, kids’ lemonade stand becomes family’s sole income
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GREENACRES, FL (WPBF) — Every day, Erin Bailey and her children pack up their cooler and head out.
“We are the best team in the world, that’s for sure,” said Bailey, a single mother of four children between the ages of 6 and 10.
Together, the team walks to the curb in front of their community in Greenacres and does what children have been doing for generations: sets up a lemonade stand.
“We have regular lemonade, strawberry lemonade, and Arnold Palmers,” Bailey said.
The children have been running the lemonade stand at the corner of Jog Road and Cresthaven Boulevard for months.
“They wanted to save up money for certain toys and things that they wanted,” Bailey said.
Then the pandemic hit.
Bailey had been running her own lawn maintenance business, but the customers stopped calling.
She said she couldn’t find a new job because, with schools closed, there was nobody to watch her kids.
“Things just got really difficult,” she said.
Now, the kids’ lemonade stand has become the family’s only source of income.
“We started selling the lemonade, basically, to make sure we have what we need every day,” Bailey said.
Bailey said she and the children often spend long hours on the curb.
She said they take turns holding the signs and often — playfully — argue over who will pour the lemonade and who will collect the money.
In the end, though, they don’t make a lot of money selling lemonade.
Bailey said her savings have vanished over the last several months.
She is now way behind on her bills, specifically her rent.
“To know that there’s a chance that we won’t have a place (for the children) to call home, that’s terrifying,” Bailey said.
Bailey said she applied for assistance from both the state and from the county, but she hasn’t gotten anywhere.
She said she feels like she’s failing as a mother.
“You reach a point where you almost feel like you’ve run out of options and that you’re letting them down,” she said.
Bailey said she isn’t looking for a handout from anyone.
She said she just wants a chance.
Bailey said she wants a way to care for the four most important people here in her world: her children.
“Right now, we’re just having a rough patch,” she said.
Her oldest child, 10-year-old Landyn, looked up at her and said: “We just need to patch that patch.”
Bailey laughed and agreed: “Yup. We just need to patch the patch.”
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