Welcome to First Bite, a Nation’s Restaurant News podcast, your daily source of news from NRN hosted by Holly Petre.
Today, we’re talking about updates to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was all anyone could talk about for months when the pandemic started. It became a major lifeline for struggling restaurants who couldn’t receive PPP loans. Then it ran out of funds. A second round of RRF funds were voted on and rejected by Congress, leaving struggling restaurants stranded without a lifeline.
Turns out, that wasn’t the case.
During an investigation this summer, an independent body found out that $180 million in funds hadn’t been distributed from the original RRF. While that may seem like a lot – and will make a substantial difference for many restaurants when and if it is eventually distributed – it’s only 1% of the money the fund held initially.
Here’s Joanna Fantozzi with some breaking news on the RRF front and a much-needed update.
Plus, catch up on all the top news of the day with our daily news recap at the beginning of each episode.
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