Restaurants and other eating establishments have only a few days remaining to take advantage of available federal funding.
The deadline to submit applications for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund is Monday, May 24 at 7 p.m.
This $28.6 billion fund provides funding to restaurants that will allow them to remain open, giving them funding that is equal to their pandemic-related losses up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Eligible businesses include restaurants, food stands, food trucks, food carts, caterers, bars, taverns, snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars, bakeries, brewpubs, tasting rooms, taprooms, breweries and microbreweries, wineries and distilleries, inns and licensed facilities of a alcoholic beverage producer that allows the public to taste, sample or purchase products. For the bakeries, brewpubs, breweries, microbreweries, wineries, distilleries and inns, onsite- sales to the public must comprise at least 33 percent of gross receipts.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund has received approximately 303,000 applications, requesting more than $69 billion in funding combined. To date, 38,000 applicants have been approved for more than $6 billion, according to a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) release.
Of those applicants, there have been more than 122,000 applications from women business owners, more than 14,000 applications from veteran business owners, and more than 71,000 applications from economically and socially disadvantaged individuals.
In order to impact a wider range of businesses, the fund has a $5 billion set-aside for businesses with gross receipts of less than $500,000. There is also a $500 million set-aside for businesses with 2019 gross receipts of less than $50,000 and a $4 billion set-aside for businesses with 2019 gross receipts between $500,000 and $1.5 million. There were 12,898 applications from business with less than $50,000 in gross receipts, requesting $290 million in funding. There were 73,671 applications from business with less than $500,000 in gross receipts, requesting $6.1 billion, and there were 34,010 applications from business with $500,000 to $1.5 million in gross receipts, requesting $8.4 billion.
“If our nation’s food and beverage industry is going to fully recover, we must ensure as many of the hardest-hit businesses get the economic aid they need,” SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzmansaid in a statement. “We are committed to creating easy to navigate programs and removing barriers that have kept many of our nation’s smallest businesses from accessing these crucial economic lifelines. The SBA will continue to be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses we serve, and we will continue to work as fast as possible to deliver the relief our businesses need so urgently.”
Those who receive RRF funding will not be required to repay the funds if used by March 11, 2023 for eligible uses.
To apply for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, click here.
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