More than 130 Los Angeles County restaurants have been awarded grants of up to $3,500, with additional funding for year-long support services as they work to regain their footing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The grants are being provided to the nonprofit California Restaurant Foundation via donations from Southern California Gas Co.,. The foundation will distribute the grant money to the restaurants, and Wells Fargo has stepped up with another $250,000 donation to the association’s Restaurants Care Resilience Fund.
That money will be used to provide restaurant owners with discounts, peer-to-peer support and monthly educational learning opportunities led by industry experts, as well as menu review to help improve their bottom line.
A collective effort
The Restaurants Care Resilience Fund was launched in March in partnership with Southern California Gas Co., Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric, who collectively donated $1.25 million to fund the grants, with a portion of the donations going to CRF’s hardship fund for food and beverage workers facing an unforeseen crisis.
The fund will power year-long support services to 318 California restaurants, including 132 in L.A. County, 77 in San Diego County, 62 in San Francisco and Alameda counties, 29 in Sacramento and San Joaquin counties and 18 in Fresno and Kern counties.
To qualify, restaurants must have just one location, employ fewer than 50 people, be open and have experienced revenue loss of at least 20% from 2019 to 2020. Grant recipients were selected from a pool of nearly 1,000 applicants.
Gregg Sherkin, Wells Fargo’s senior vice president of social impact and sustainability, said the bank was more than happy to step in.
“Wells Fargo understands that small restaurants hold the identity of local neighborhoods,” Sherkin said in a statement. “Through this support, small restaurants will be equipped with everything they need to recover and sustain that recovery.”
Alycia Harshfield, the restaurant foundation’s executive director, said eateries have had a tough time staying afloat amid the COVID-19 health crisis.
‘A rocky road’
“It’s been challenging, to say the least,” she said. “From the shutdowns and layoffs of staff to getting needed supplies … it’s been a rocky road.”
Harshfield said the on-again/off-again closures have made things especially tough for entrepreneurs struggling to remain in operation.
“Each time they reopened it was like opening up a new restaurant,” she said. “Some have said their revenues were down 50%. It’s been a difficult road to navigate.”
Help on a federal level
On a broader scale, the Biden administration has launched a $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund to help eateries that have lost business during the pandemic.
The White House said that 186,200 restaurants, bars and other eligible businesses applied for the program over its first two days of accepting applications. More than half of the businesses are owned by women, veterans or people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The U.S. Small Business Administration announced Monday that the first round of funding represents more than $2 billion of relief awarded since program launch.
Harshfield said one in six restaurants nationwide have closed permanently economic challenges related to COVID-19.
I’m hearing that it will be anywhere from one to three years before we see a full recovery,” she said. “The challenge for all of these restaurants that are reopening again is staffing up so they provide the services needed for guests.”
