New Fund Will Prioritize Grants for Independent Restaurants Owned by Women and People of Color
San Diego CA— The California Restaurant Foundation (CRF), a nonprofit that invests in and empowers California’s restaurants and its workforce, has received a $200,000 shareholder-funded charitable grant from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) for its new Resilience Fund. The fund will support $2,000 grants to single-unit restaurants in San Diego County with priority given to restaurants owned by women and people of color. SDG&E has partnered with SoCalGas, Pacific Gas & Electric, and others to provide $1.25 million in support to restaurants in eight counties in California, including San Diego.
“Not only do these diverse, family-owned restaurants add to the cultural vibrancy of our neighborhoods, they are engines of the local economy,” said Todd Cahill, SDG&E’s director of customer care and California Restaurant Association San Diego County Chapter board member. “Unfortunately, they are also among the businesses hardest hit by the pandemic. We hope these funds will help to accelerate their recovery and that of the industry as a whole.”
Grants given by CRF’s Restaurants Care Resilience Fund are intended to be used on payroll and related expenses such as additional hours for workers and new hires. Additionally, restaurants that receive a Resilience Fund grant will also receive support services and resources to improve their business for the long-term. Over the past year, through the nonprofit’s Restaurants Care® program, CRF has helped nearly 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. So yes, we’re helping restaurants keep their crew on payroll, while also offering a safety net for when things get tough.”
Resilience Fund applications will be open from April 11-18, 2021 and can be found at www.restaurantscare.org/resilience. Grants will be available to single-unit, California-based restaurants in the following counties: Alameda, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Joaquin 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.
The Resilience Fund is currently accepting additional support from corporations, foundations, and individuals who want to aid in the restaurant recovery. Donations of all sizes are accepted and celebrated at www.restaurantscare.org/resilience.
“Our mission is to care for the people at the heart of restaurants,” Harshfield explains. “Given the extraordinary circumstances brought on by the pandemic, we recognized a need to help restaurant businesses stay open and keep their crews employed. While we’re hopeful to see restaurants open up and COVID cases drop, the recovery will take years and we’re doing what we can to help.”
For more information about Restaurants Care or the Resilience Fund, please visit www.restaurantscare.org. To learn more about SDG&E visit www.sdge.com.
About the California Restaurant Foundation (CRF)
California is home to more than 90,000 eating and drinking places that ring up more than $72 billion in sales and employ more than 1.6 million workers, making restaurants an indisputable driving force in the state’s economy. The California Restaurant Foundation is a non-profit that empowers and invests in California’s restaurant workforce. Founded in 1981, CRF supports the restaurant community through emergency assistance grants for restaurant workers facing a hardship, job and life skills training for 13,500 high school students each year, and scholarships. For more information visit www.calrestfoundation.org.
About San Diego Gas & Electric
SDG&E is an innovative San Diego-based energy company that provides clean, safe and reliable energy to better the lives of the people it serves in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The company is committed to creating a sustainable future by providing around 45 percent of its electricity from renewable sources; modernizing natural gas infrastructure; accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles; supporting numerous non-profit partners; and, investing in innovative technologies to ensure the reliable operation of the region’s infrastructure for generations to come. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE). For more information, visit SDGEnews.com or connect with SDG&E on Twitter (@SDGE), Instagram (@SDGE) and Facebook.