Restaurant Revitalization Fund comes to messy end, leaving behind 265K small businesses
The $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund closed on Jun. 30, fulfilling fewer than a third of the applied for $75 billion in federal relief funding. Some 370,000 foodservice businesses applied for funding, but only 105,000 of those were approved for grants, which averaged about $272,000.
According to reports, the Small Business Administration, which manages the RRF, informed rejected applicants by email this week that due to “overwhelming demand” it could not fund all qualified applications.
The foodservice industry, through such groups as the National Restaurant Association, Independent Restaurant Coalition and National Automatic Merchandising Association, are advocating for the fund to be replenished with $60 billion. This amount would more than double the RRF’s original $28.6 billion allowance.
NRA spokesman Sean Kennedy urged Congress to act immediate to restore the program.
The SBA’s processing platform will hold applications that were not approved in the original round should Congress authorize the RRF’s refunding.
The SBA closed RRF applications on May 24. It will disable access to the RRF portal on July 14.
