What Is The American Rescue Plan?
The American Rescue Plan is a COVID relief package established by the US federal government. It contains the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF). The RRF is a relief package designed specifically to help restaurants like yours! Restaurants that are eligible for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund may be able to receive a tax-free grant from the federal government. This loan is equal to the amount of the business’s pandemic-related revenue loss. The RRF grants up to ten million dollars in COVID relief money per business. This is limited to five million dollars per physical restaurant location.
Who is Eligible for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Grants?
The RRF is designed to help small and mid-sized restaurant chains. This means businesses that operate one location to those that operate up to twenty. If your restaurant business and it’s affiliates owned and operated more than twenty locations at the time of March 13th, 2020, you are not eligible for grants under the RRF.
RRF grants are available for restaurants but are also available for other establishments such as food stands, taprooms, and bars.
How Much Relief Money Can I Receive from the American Rescue Plan?
Restaurants that qualify for grants under the Restaurant Revitalization Act can receive grants equal in amount to the restaurant’s pandemic-related lost revenue amount.
When Can I Receive Relief Money?
It is expected that applications for the RRF will open in May or June of 2021. There is expected to be a 21-day priority application window for restaurants owned by women, veterans, minorities, and other disadvantaged groups. After this priority application window has passed, all eligible restaurants will then be able to apply for grants.
What Can I Use the American Rescue Fund COVID Relief Money For?
Relief money granted under the RRF can be used for a wide variety of specified expenses. For example, the relief money can be used for paid sick leave, payroll, PPE, rent, utilities, inventory, and more.
How Do I Calculate my Revenue Loss?
Calculating your pandemic-related revenue loss is easy. You can do so by finding the difference in amount between your business’s 2020 gross receipts and your business’s 2019 gross receipts. You must remove any amount that your business received in loans from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program.
What If My Restaurant Opened in 2019 or 2020?
To calculate grant amounts for your restaurants that opened in 2019, you will need to annualize your business’s average monthly gross receipts and compare them to the receipts from 2020. If your restaurant opened in 2020, you’ll need to calculate the amount of grant money you’re eligible for by taking the difference between your business’s qualified grant expenses and your business’s 2020 gross receipts.
We hope that this information was helpful as your business navigates applying for COVID relief money under the American Rescue Plan. We’re all rooting for you!
