Billions legislated to save US restaurants starting to run out

Restaurants and eating outlets desperate for a lifeline during Covid-19 swarmed to apply for a new government grant to help them pay for rent, utilities, supplies and payroll. In just 10 days, the Small Business Administration has received 266,000 applications asking for $65 billion in aid, more than twice the amount provided by Congress.

Industry lobbyists and activists, who spent a year begging Congress for help before lawmakers acted earlier this year, are already asking them to replenish the fund and keep local, well-loved restaurants afloat as the economy begins to recover. Joining their call is a bipartisan group of representatives and senators already working to persuade colleagues to put more money in the fund.

“There is truly a national appetite to do this, and there’s no part of the country where this support is not badly needed and strongly supported’’, said US Representatives Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, who is working with House and Senate leaders to replenish the fund.

37pc of operators say it is unlikely their restaurant would still be in business 6 months from Oct without additional govt relief packages

Perhaps no industry was hit as hard by the Covid-19 economic shutdowns as restaurants and bars. People largely stayed home and were cautioned to avoid crowded areas where they would have to takeoff their masks. Many restaurants tried switching to take-out, which requires less staff, set up expensive outdoor eating areas or hibernated over the winter hoping they’d be able to reemerge in the spring. But many didn’t make it.

More than 110,000 restaurants closed in 2020, and 500,000 are in dire straits, according to a November survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association. Thirty-seven per cent of operators said it is unlikely their restaurant would still be in business six months from October without additional government relief packages, according to the survey.

With more people getting vaccinated and venturing out into public with the loosened restrictions in California, the grant is a lifeline, said Fernay Mcpherson, 43, owner of Minnie Bell’s in Emeryville.

She plans to use the $100,000-plus grant she received to hire staff, buy supplies, pay rent and have plenty of her signature rosemary fried chicken ready for when the food market where she operates resumes seven days a week again. “I just really want to be able to focus on the state opening up in June’’, she said.

Without the money, she’d be weighing whether to close or take loans to keep the business open.

“We would be trying to dig ourselves out of a hole, for sure’’, Mcpherson said.