Thank you, Danielle/Han for that warm introduction. It’s truly an honor to be here.
As the first to close and likely the last to reopen, our restauranters and other food and beverage entrepreneurs have had to pivot and adapt to a new COVID marketplace.
The creativity, ingenuity and determination they’ve shown over the past year, as they’ve risen to the enormous challenges presented by this pandemic, have inspired me to work harder to help our nation’s small businesses recover and rebuild.
Our priority at the SBA is to bring back businesses, create jobs and build an equitable economy that works for all of us.
Thanks to the leadership of President Biden and our champions in Congress such as Representative Blumenauer, billions of dollars in targeted relief for our small businesses and startups has been allocated through the American Rescue Plan.
We’re focused on getting this relief to those who need our help the most – especially our smallest and minority-owned businesses who have faced historic barriers limiting their growth, and who were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
We’re doing that by increasing accessibility to our programs – incorporating technology and simplifying processes – and putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers. Just as our nation’s entrepreneurs have pivoted and adapted to the new COVID marketplace, we’re pivoting and adapting to meet them where they are.
And I’m proud to say that it’s working.
We recently launched the $28.6 billion dollar Restaurant Revitalization Fund to provide targeted relief to restaurants and other food and beverage businesses across the country that have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.
When Congress authorized this program, they mandated a 21-day priority period for restaurants, food and beverage businesses owned by women, veterans, and socially or economically disadvantaged people.
They also included $5 billion in set aside funding for the smallest of the small food and beverage businesses – the food carts, food trucks, caterers and others – and the SBA added to that with another $4.5 billion in set-aside funding, which includes special set-aside of $500 million for businesses with revenue of $50,000 dollars or less.
Within one week of launching this program, we received more than 265,000 applications representing over $65 billion in requested funds – including more than 3,000 applicants here in Oregon.
So far, we’ve been able to get relief into the hands of more than 21,000 food and beverage businesses owned by women, veterans, and people of color.
We’ve been told by applicants that the process was streamlined and simple and took less than 20 minutes.
And many took advantage of our partnerships with several point-of-sale vendors, including Square, Toast, Aloha and Clover, to apply directly through the technology they’re already using.
The success we’ve seen with this program is just the beginning.
I plan to implement this customer-first approach across all SBA programs and services. I’ve challenged SBA staff to be as entrepreneurial as the small businesses we serve. And we will do it with a focus on equity – to bridge the gaps that exist so that ALL of our entrepreneurs can be supported.
We know that restaurants and other food and beverage businesses still need our help. Working with champions like Representative Blumenauer, we will continue to do everything we can to help them get past this pandemic – and build the resiliency they need to thrive.