Our Story

One · Our story

Big things can start small.

McK & Jack is a family-built brand led by young entrepreneurs McKenzie (8) and Jackson (5) — better known as The Boss and The Genius.

What began with lemonade has grown into something much bigger. Through their lemonade and slushies, community events, school experiences, books, and content, McKenzie and Jackson are learning firsthand what it means to build a business — from creating products and serving customers to tracking sales, developing new ideas, and making decisions.

And when McK & Jack shows up, we don't just serve drinks — we create an experience.

Whether we're rolling up to a school, community celebration, corporate event, festival, or special gathering, McKenzie and Jackson bring their personalities right along with the food truck. Guests get to meet the young entrepreneurs behind the brand, interact with them, try their creations, take photos, join in the fun, and become part of the McK & Jack story.

Because we'd rather create a moment people remember than simply sell them a lemonade.

But McK & Jack isn't just about what we're building. It's about what families can build together.

We believe some of life's most important lessons don't have to happen in a classroom. They can happen around the dinner table, behind a concession window, while counting the day's sales, creating a new flavor, meeting a new customer, or simply giving a child the opportunity to say, "I have an idea."

Our mission is to inspire families to spend more intentional time together, give children a real seat at the table, and turn everyday moments into opportunities to teach, create, and build something meaningful.

We're building a business. We're building memories. We're creating experiences. And most importantly, we're building it together.

When life gives you lemons, start a business with your children.

Two · The question

She asked where money came from

McKenzie was five when she first asked where money came from. We gave her the short answer, and she asked again, more specifically this time: where did our money come from. That one we couldn't wave away.

We could have explained it with a chart or a piggy bank. Instead we asked her a different question: what would you sell? She didn't hesitate. Lemonade. She'd had it at a friend's stand that summer and thought it looked easy.

It is not easy. That turned out to be most of the lesson.

You have to make back what you spent. Only after that are you earning.

Four · Registering the company

Then we made it official

A few sold-out weekends in, a neighbor asked if the stand could come to her son's birthday party. Then a restaurant nearby asked about a block party. What had been a front-yard experiment was starting to look like something people would actually book — and something that needed to be handled properly.

So we filed the paperwork. McK and Jack, LLC is a real, registered company in the state of Georgia, with its own bank account, its own insurance for events, and its own permits for selling food in public. None of that is a formality McKenzie and Jackson see day to day, but it's the reason a birthday party or a corporate event can book us with confidence instead of crossing their fingers.

It also meant the lesson got bigger. There is a difference between money in a tin box and money that has to cover ingredients, insurance, and gas for the food truck before anyone calls it profit — and McKenzie was the one who wanted to understand that difference, not us.

Six · Meet Akili and Wendy

Their parents, mostly out of the way

We drive the food truck, handle the permits, and step in when a pitcher needs refilling faster than an 8- and 5-year-old can manage. Beyond that, we try to stay out of the way. The decisions that make it their business — what to sell, what to charge, when a day was actually profitable — stay theirs to make, even when it would be faster to just tell them.

That question — how do we let our kids actually run something, instead of just standing near it — is the one other parents ask us most at events. Often enough that we started sitting down with families one at a time to talk through it properly.