As California's hospitality industry is working on getting back to business, restaurants will be getting a spark from a familiar source.

The California Restaurant Foundation (CRF), a non-profit that invests in and empowers California's restaurants and its workforce, has received more than $1.25 million from SoCalGas, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), and others to launch the Restaurant Care Resilience Fund. The fund will provide grants of up to $3,500 to single-unit restaurants across California, with priority given to woman- and BIPOC-owned restaurants.

“The Resilience Fund will provide critical financial support to our hardest hit small businesses, many of which are owned and operated by women and people of color,” shared Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda L. Solis, Supervisor to the First District. “Throughout the pandemic, we have seen the economic impact across the County, leading to greater job loss and reduced hours resulting in less pay for workers. The Resilience Fund will help our small businesses retain their workers and help ease the economic burden of the pandemic as we rebuild for a better tomorrow.”

Grants given by CRF’s Restaurants Care Resilience Fund are intended to be used on payroll and related expenses so the restaurants can free up funds for other expenses such as rent, tech upgrades and outdoor dining retrofitting. Additionally, restaurants that receive a Resilience Fund grant will also receive services and resources to improve their business for the long-term.

Over the past year, through the Restaurants Care program, CRF has helped more than 1,200 restaurant workers, their families and businesses and believes that by investing in the lasting success of these restaurants, we can also preserve jobs and communities throughout California.

“What’s really unique about our Resilience Fund is that it supports the business as well as individual restaurant workers,” said Alycia Harshfield, Executive Director of the California Restaurant Foundation. “A portion of the funds raised will provide grants for cooks, servers, dishwashers and more who face unforeseen hardship and have nowhere else to turn and the rest will go to the restaurant. So yes, we’re helping restaurants keep their crew on payroll, while also offering a safety net for when things get tough. While we’re delighted to see restaurants opening up and COVID cases drop, the recovery will take years and we’re doing what we can to help.”  

Resilience Fund applications will be open through Sunday (April 18, 2021) and can be found at www.restaurantscare.org/resilience. Grants will be available to single-unit, California-based restaurants in Alameda, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles (excluding Long Beach), Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Joaquin counties with a staff of 50 or fewer employees.

To qualify, the restaurant must currently be open and have experienced a revenue loss of at least 20% from 2019-2020. Priority will be given to restaurants owned by women and people of color.