Government Assistance May Be Available For Your Foodservice Operation
We’ve spoken in the past all about transitioning your restaurant or foodservice operation and expanding into outdoor dining due to COVID-19 and the local legislative mandates regarding indoor dining and capacity limits. You may or may not be aware that there are government assistance programs that are designed specifically for helping the industry, since it was one of the most impacted ones due to the pandemic.
It’s known that the restaurant industry is worth approximately $889 billion dollars annually, and that there are more than 1 million restaurants nationwide. Because of the pandemic of 2020, that industry that was once booming is projected to lose $240 billion dollars by the end of the year. If you’re not keen on math, that’s a 27% projected loss for this industry alone, which also doesn’t always account for night clubs, bars, breweries, and non-food centered operations.
Accounting for these high losses, the federal and local statewide government has stepped in and have begun to offer grants that will help local restaurant business owners recoup some of the loss that they have taken on recently. Within the Washington DC area, the mayor declared a Public Health Emergency through December 31, 2020. The district’s response was to offer a one-time, $6,000 grant to restaurant owners to winterize their outdoor seating area, as well as maintenance to those operations that currently offer outdoor dining. For more information about the Streatery Winter Ready Grant Program, please refer to the application.
Another notable effort by the State of Virginia is through the Rebuild! Virginia Small Business Grant Program. The Rebuild Va Grant Fund recently expanded their funding, thus opening more options for Virginians to apply if you’re a small business or non-profit with less than 250 employees on payroll, or that makes less than $10,000,000 in gross revenue annually. If you are within the Virginia area and interested in more information on this amazing opportunity, please refer to the state’s site directly here.
As always, Alto-Hatley always aims to support our local restaurant and bar owners by offering valuable information, with practical solutions that apply to the foodservice industry specifically. If you have more information about other funding opportunities that you think our community would benefit from, we welcome an email and will absolutely share this information with our guests. We are all in this together, and are proud to have a community mindset, and know that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Together, we will weather this pandemic storm.
