BLASDELL, N.Y. — With many restaurants struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins announced Friday that help is on the way with $28.6 billion in federal funding that is going to be available soon.
Congressman Higgins, along with several restaurant owners, and representatives from two small business development centers held a press conference Friday at Ilio DiPaolo's to make sure restaurant owners know about being able to apply for federal aid.
That money will help the restaurants across the country hit hard by the pandemic. It is an industry that saw sales plummet $240 billion last year, according to the National Restaurant Association.
"Get aggressive, get an application in, make sure it's completed, and call your member of Congress, and say we need more help because this should not be survival of the fittest. This is an industry that was devastated by a pandemic over which they had no control, and you can't pick winners and losers in the economy as to who should benefit, or who would get relief and who shouldn't," Higgins said.
The restaurant owners say filling out the application to get some of that federal funding is crucial.
"If you're operating just doing takeout, you're operating at 50 percent, many of the bills that you have to pay, or expenses that you incur, are not 50 percent, they're 100 percent," Mulberry Italian Ristorante owner Joe Jerge said.
"It's very difficult at this time to try to procure labor. With the extra incentive from unemployment, it's very difficult to get people to come back to work, so you overpay the people that you have a little bit to keep them with you. As Dennis touched on, the price of food is going through the roof, so this is certainly, with the PPP and this here, certainly will help keep us alive and keep us going through what we have yet to see."
So, the SUNY Buffalo State and NCCC Small Business Development Centers will be helping restaurant owners get everything ready to apply for federal help as soon as applications start being accepted. There is a virtual workshop coming up on April 19 if you would like to get help with your application.
You can register for the workshop right now, just click here.