The Small Business Administration has released $83 million dollars in Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants to 169 operators with pending applications.
"The SBA's action represents the final chapter of our nearly three-year effort to secure dedicated federal pandemic relief dollars for local restaurants,” said the National Restaurant Association's EVP of public affairs, Sean Kennedy, in a statement. "We must continue to look forward because the enormous challenges of the industry will continue beyond today. From the recruitment of employees to the constantly rising costs for food, running a restaurant right now is a daily struggle. There are steps the government can take to support restaurants in every community, and we will continue to press for solutions at the federal, state, and local level."
The grants will be released to operators in the order their applications were received. Operators should receive the funds this week, and they should be spent by March 2023.
The restaurant industry was the hardest hit by the pandemic with over eight million industry employees laid off or furloughed and over 90,000 restaurants forced to shutter in the U.S.
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