LIHU‘E — A $28.6-billion grant program is opening soon, targeted toward restaurants, food trucks and stands, bars and other food-service businesses that have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund will start accepting applications on Monday, May 3. Registration for the U.S. Small Business Administration application portal will begins Friday, April 30, at 9 a.m EST.
Of the total amount, $5 billion is set aside for the smallest businesses, with 2019 gross receipts of $500,000 or less.
The grant is equal to the business’s pandemic-related revenue loss (2019 gross receipts minus 2020 gross receipts), limited to $5 million per physical location and $10 million total for an applying business entity.
In order to be eligible, on-site sales to the public most have comprised at least 33% of an entity’s gross receipts in 2019.
The program will also begin with a 21-day priority period for women-, veteran- and minority-owned businesses.
United States Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) announced the grant on Tuesday, saying: “For restaurants and bars in Hawai‘i, help is here. This pandemic has been particularly brutal for businesses that depend on people being able to gather and share a meal in person, so this new funding will be a big help.”
On Kaua‘i, some businesses are already planning to take advantage of the grant, and others like it, according to Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce President Mark Perriello.
But, for some, it’s already too late — particuarily for the businesses that have already had to shut their doors.
“Many restaurateurs could have used this help earlier on in the pandemic,” Perriello said Monday. “Now that Kaua‘i has rejoined the state’s Safe Travels program, business is picking up at most restaurants.”
Perriello also pointed out that there are many other types of bussinesses on Kaua‘i that could use a similar program, with many retailers expressing to the chamber that they are also feeling the financial pinch.
In response to the pandemic, Congress has passed several rounds of small-business relief and financial assistance programs. Schatz’s office highlighted the most recent American Rescue Plan.
In addition to providing more funding for general small-business relief, the American Rescue Plan also includes a new grant program for restaurants and other food and drinking establishments impacted by the pandemic.
Visit the federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund website, restaurants.sba.gov, for applications and to learn more about grant elligibility.
•••
Jessica Else, editor, can be reached at 245-0457 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
While I think it’s great that a program like this may help out quite a few food establishment businesses, I feel that other businesses that have suffered just as much, if not more, have been ignored. Residents that have received stimulus checks and unemployment benefits are still going to eat out. Those businesses that completely rely on tourists have suffered much more since their entire source of income was shut down. Restaurants can adjust staffing, hours of operation and food costs depending on business volume. A visitor industry company has to shut down, lay people off, apply for loans to float them and wait until government makes the decision to let visitors back to Kaua’i.
I would guess that the number of retail and tourist related businesses that closed is at least three times higher than food establishments.
More work. More spending. Lost all of it. Now there’s help. Not sure about this idea. Pandemic is still here.