Eligible eating establishments have until Monday, May 24, 8pm ET, to submit applications to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf our nation\u2019s 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,\u201d said Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman of the Small Business Administration. \u201cWe are committed to creating easy to navigate programs and removing barriers that have kept many of our nation\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers speak to the commitment SBA made to educating\u00a0owners and operators through their\u00a0work with the association, our state partners, and other industry support organizations,\u201d said\u00a0Tom Ben\u00e9, president & CEO of the National Restaurant Association. \u201cThe funds that have already been distributed will help accelerate the recovery of thousands of restaurants and bring much-needed capital to communities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $28.6-billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund established an initial $5 billion set-aside established by Congress for applicants with gross receipts not more than $500,000. To further ensure an equitable distribution of funds, Guzman created two additional funding allocations to ensure the smallest of the small restaurants and other eating establishments have equitable access: 1) $500 million for applicants with 2019 gross receipts not more than $50,000, and 2) $4 billion for applicants with 2019 gross receipts between $500,000 and $1,500,000. <\/p>\n
In the first two weeks of the RRF program, and after 600 targeted community outreach events in multiple languages, SBA has received from priority groups:<\/p>\n
\u2022 12,898 applications\u00a0from businesses with not more than $50,000 in pre-pandemic revenue requesting $290 million in funds<\/p>\n
\u2022 73,671 applications\u00a0from businesses with not more than $500,000 in annual pre-pandemic revenue\u00a0requesting $6.1 billion in funds<\/p>\n
\u2022 34,010 applications\u00a0from businesses with $500,000 – $1,500,000 in annual pre-pandemic revenue\u00a0requesting $8.4 billion in funds<\/p>\n
Designed to ensure the smallest of small eating establishments get the relief needed, set-asides continue a commitment to an equitable distribution of funds to hard-hit communities. Because SBA still has potential set-aside funding available for eligible establishments with 2019 annual revenue of not more than $50,000, it will keep the application portal open until Monday, May 24, 8 p.m. ET. While all qualified restaurants may submit applications, more than $220 million of a $500 million set-aside remains in the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF). Eligible establishments that meet this revenue standard are encouraged to apply through SBA-recognized point-of-sale vendors or directly via the SBA online application portal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To date, the RRF program has received more than 303,000 applications representing over $69 billion in requested funds, and nearly 38,000 applicants have been approved for more than $6 billion. Of the overall submitted applications, 57 percent came from women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged business owners. <\/p>\n
During the first two weeks of the program, SBA has received applications from:<\/p>\n
\u2022 More than\u00a0122,000\u00a0women business owners<\/p>\n
\u2022 More than\u00a014,000\u00a0veteran business owners<\/p>\n
\u2022 More than\u00a071,000\u00a0economically and socially disadvantaged individuals<\/p>\n
For those interested in applying to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, visit\u00a0sba.gov\/restaurants. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eligible eating establishments have until Monday, May 24, 8pm ET, to submit applications to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":331088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}