'STRUGGLING' TO SERVE: Congress is sitting on the 'sidelines' as restaurant owners are on their last straw
Nello owner Thomas Makkos argues New York City COVID mandates have been 'catastrophic' for restaurants.
"Restaurants are a low-profit industry on a good day, and we are still loaded with debt from government-mandated shutdowns - so it has been really tough for us to come back online," Kennedy said on Thursday. "We don’t have the customer traffic that we need." He went on to point out that "90,000 restaurants have closed their doors temporarily or long term" and stressed the importance of moving the legislation to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund forward in order to prevent the industry, which he noted is the nation’s second-largest private sector employer, from shrinking further.
Asked earlier this month about the possibility of a relief package that targets restaurants and other small businesses, White House press secretary Jen Psaki pointed to the $1.9 trillion package that Democrats passed nearly a year ago. "We did a major relief package that included helping restaurants just last year," she said.
Only about one-third of restaurants that applied for relief through the fund received a grant, and the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a trade group formed during the pandemic, estimates that nearly 80% of restaurants could close this winter without additional aid.