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U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman announced that nearly 1,000 Oregon restaurants, food carts, and other eligible businesses have received a Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant, bringing $138 million in relief to local food and beverage establishments.
To date, 960 Oregon businesses have received a grant during the ongoing priority period for restaurants owned or controlled by women, veterans, and socially or economically disadvantaged communities. The average grant amount for Oregon is $143,000.
“I am thrilled to share that we have nearly 1,000 Oregon restaurants, food carts, coffee shops, and other eligible businesses receiving a Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant. This was a program initially designed here in Portland with our local restaurateurs and we took it back to Congress to get the job done,” said Blumenauer. “The grants announced today will bring $138 million in relief funds to local businesses, with an average award amount of $143,000. These are small- and medium-sized businesses and the emphasis on women, veterans, and socially or economically disadvantaged business owners shows that the program is working as designed to help the hardest hit local businesses restore and move forward. We’re now hard at work in Congress to replenish the fund because of overwhelming demand.”
“Our priority at SBA is to bring back businesses, create jobs, and build an equitable economy that works for all of us. We appreciate the leadership of President Biden and our champions in Congress such as Representative Blumenauer. Because of them, billions in targeted relief funds have been made available to our small businesses. We launched that $28.6 billion restaurant fund to provide targeted relief to restaurants and other food and beverage businesses across the country that have been among the hardest hit. So far, we have been able to get nearly $6 billion of relief into the hands of 38,000 food and beverage businesses owned by women, veterans, and people of color,” said Administrator Guzman. “The Restaurant Revitalization Fund really wouldn’t have moved forward without you, Congressman, and for that, our nation’s small food and beverage businesses owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“This is a complete gamechanger. For someone like myself, being a Korean American, this money gives me more of an opportunity to put my culture first and to really share it through the food,” said Han Ly Hwang, owner of Kim Jong Grillin, an Oregon recipient of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. “This is far from over, but how easy and smooth [Congress and SBA] transitioned this program from being in writing to actually being implementing is jaw-dropping. The help means the world to us. It means that we’re not alone, and we really appreciate that.”
Blumenauer wrote and championed the legislation creating the $28.6 billion restaurant relief program signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan. He recently announced his commitment to replenishing the relief fund in a bipartisan and bicameral way.
Source: U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer