Blog, May 2022

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was established in the CARES Act of 2020 to provide emergency relief to small businesses struggling to retain employees at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was supposed to be an innovative emergency lending program that would not only help small businesses but also ensure public dollars went to the workers most in need of support, but it didn’t live up to its promise. Instead, it was exploited by major corporations like McDonalds and luxury hotels like the Chateau Marmont.

The American Rescue Plan included a program meant to keep small businesses owned by disadvantaged groups in the restaurant industry open during the height of the pandemic. The $28.8 billion grant program—known as the Restaurant Revitalization Fund—gave money to over 100,000 businesses, with some grants going as high as $10 million.