For more than a year since the pandemic began, the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation (EDIC/Lynn) has guided state and federal money to businesses and organizations crushed by COVID-19 closures, and later, capacity limits.
True to that commitment, EDIC is encouraging Lynn restaurateurs to apply to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund created by the federal Small Business Administration.
By every indication, the fund sounds like a well-thought-out lifeline for restaurants; it provides owners with money equal to the amounts they lost during the pandemic. Women, veterans, and socially- and economically-disadvantaged entrepreneurs are prioritized in the initial application review.
It would be hard to find someone who hasn’t felt COVID-19’s impact on restaurants. In many ways, not having restaurants fully operational for more than a year has been like having colors leached out of life, until all that remains is a glum black-and-white world.
Restaurants both big and small are focal points for so many important events in our lives: first dates, engagement parties, business meetings, birthday parties, wedding anniversaries.
Where we eat out is a source of comfort, a familiar touchstone. The corner pizza shop owner knows us by name. The neighborhood restaurant proprietor seats us at our favorite table. Restaurants are places where people are almost always happy, simply because they can laugh with friends and family while filling their bellies with food they like.
The staggering, unimaginable blow COVID-19 dealt us beginning in March 2020 put people out of work and darkened restaurants, leaving employees wondering how they would pay bills and opening a yawning void in the lives of owners, workers, customers, food-and-beverage victuallers, paper-goods providers and laundry owners. The ripple effect of closing restaurants is staggering.
Restaurants have limped back into operation with takeout and delivery options and outdoor dining. But Plexiglas barriers and door-to-door dinner delivery can’t replicate the feeling of toasting a life celebration with loved ones or ordering your favorite dessert.
Restaurants need help. Vaccinations will eventually allow customers to pour through the doors again, but in the meantime, entrepreneurs can access Restaurant Revitalization Fund applications at sba.gov/restaurants or in Spanish at sba. gov/restaurantes. Please contact EDIC/Lynn at 781-581-9399 if you have any questions on how to apply.
