Hard-hit restaurants can now apply for relief funds through SBA portal

Applications are now being accepted from eligible businesses for relief monies from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, according to U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabella Guzman. The online application process will remain open to any eligible establishment until all funds are exhausted.

“Restaurants are the core of our neighborhoods and propel economic activity on main streets across the nation. They are among the businesses that have been hardest-hit and need support to survive this pandemic. We want restaurants to know that help is here,” said Guzman. “The SBA has focused on the marketplace realities of our food and beverage businesses in designing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to meet businesses where they are. And we are committed to equity to ensure our smaller and underserved businesses, which have suffered the most, can access this critical relief, recover, and grow more resilient.”

“The restaurant and bar industry got slammed,” said Michele Corigliano, executive director of the Salt Lake Restaurant Association. She said that since the start of the year, “restaurants have been picking up quite considerably. But that doesn’t really translate into restaurants being back on their feet.”

Established under Pres. Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund provides a total of $28.6 billion in direct relief funds to restaurants and other hard-hit food establishments that have experienced economic distress and significant operational losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SBA said. The program will provide restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Funds must be used for allowable expenses by March 11, 2023. 

For the first 21 days that the program is open (through May 24), the SBA will prioritize funding applications from businesses owned and controlled by women, veterans and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. All eligible applicants are encouraged to submit applications as soon as the possible.