SoCalGas invites Los Angeles area restaurants to apply for pandemic relief
LOS ANGELES - The Southern California Gas Co. on Tuesday invited Los Angeles County restaurants to apply for pandemic relief through the California Restaurant Foundation's Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, which was co-founded by the utility.
Qualifying restaurants can apply for a $3,500 grant to help them rebound from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to SoCalGas, the program is expected to help about 125 eateries in L.A. County pay for things like payroll and hiring new employees.
The Resilience Fund applications will be open through April 18 and can be found by clicking here.
"We know that restaurants have a lot going on right now, so we wanted to make this application as simple as possible. It should take about 30 minutes to complete and we have checklists and tools available on our website to help," said Alycia Harshfield, executive director of the California Restaurant Foundation.
The Restaurants Care Resilience Fund is part of a statewide effort between the California Restaurant Foundation and energy companies, with a focus on long-term resilience for small restaurants that have struggled the most during the pandemic.
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In addition to the $3,500 grant, restaurants will receive one year of support services and resources to improve their businesses for the long term.
Grants are available to single-unit restaurants with 50 or fewer employees. To qualify, the restaurant must be a SoCalGas customer, currently open, and have experienced a revenue loss of at least 20% from 2019-2020.
"We are proud to partner with the California Restaurant Foundation to support small business in one of the hardest-hit industries by the pandemic," said Andy Carrasco, vice president of communications, local government and community affairs at SoCalGas.
"By investing in the long-term success of local restaurants, we can also preserve jobs and help our communities thrive."
In addition to supporting the Restaurant Care Resilience Fund, the utility has donated more than $4 million to nonprofit organizations to support the region's workforce, feed the hungry and provide bill assistance to customers as part of COVID-19 recovery efforts.
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