Restaurant industry seeks help for struggling restaurants amid COVID-19
The restaurant industry has taken a huge hit since the start of the pandemic nearly three years ago. So, CEO Carol Wight with the New Mexico Restaurant Association is requesting additional funding at the 2023 legislative session to help struggling restaurants in need.”Restaurants are struggling really right now. It’s kind of a three-headed monster. They’ve got inflation, and we think about inflation on a broader scale as being around 8%, but restaurant wholesale food has gone up 15.8%,” Wight said. “So, of course, we have the labor shortages that we’ve experienced since the end of the pandemic and supply chain shortages.”According to NMRA, some restaurants did not receive funds from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. “The federal government had given away with $2.8 billion to restaurants throughout the country, but it was on a first-come, first-served basis,” Wight said. “New Mexico, we had 1500 applicants to that fund. Only 600 of them got what they requested, and 928 of them did not get what they requested. So, what we’re doing is asking the state to help those restaurants that did not get that additional funding.”Michael Conforti, owner of The Library Bar & Grill, said he can use the extra help. “We incurred a lot of debt during COVID. So, we’re in the process of paying that all back. So, to have the ability to get these loans would give us the opportunity to get so far out of debt that we actually could start moving forward like we were doing before COVID,” he said. “We were counting on the bigger money that was going to come from the federal government that some bars did get. That was the money that was going to save the day, and we got a letter saying the money is on its way and it never came. The funds ran out.”Despite COVID-19 hardships, Confetti hopes for business to return back to normal soon. “We could also possibly look at opening our operation back to the way it was for the last 15, 16 years before we had to make the adjustment due to the COVID losses, the revenue losses,” he said. Wight said they’re still working with the legislature to determine the number of funds to request moving forward. The legislative session begins in January 2023.
The restaurant industry has taken a huge hit since the start of the pandemic nearly three years ago. So, CEO Carol Wight with the New Mexico Restaurant Association is requesting additional funding at the 2023 legislative session to help struggling restaurants in need.
“Restaurants are struggling really right now. It’s kind of a three-headed monster. They’ve got inflation, and we think about inflation on a broader scale as being around 8%, but restaurant wholesale food has gone up 15.8%,” Wight said. “So, of course, we have the labor shortages that we’ve experienced since the end of the pandemic and supply chain shortages.”
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According to NMRA, some restaurants did not receive funds from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
“The federal government had given away with $2.8 billion to restaurants throughout the country, but it was on a first-come, first-served basis,” Wight said. “New Mexico, we had 1500 applicants to that fund. Only 600 of them got what they requested, and 928 of them did not get what they requested. So, what we’re doing is asking the state to help those restaurants that did not get that additional funding.”
Michael Conforti, owner of The Library Bar & Grill, said he can use the extra help.
“We incurred a lot of debt during COVID. So, we’re in the process of paying that all back. So, to have the ability to get these loans would give us the opportunity to get so far out of debt that we actually could start moving forward like we were doing before COVID,” he said. “We were counting on the bigger money that was going to come from the federal government that some bars did get. That was the money that was going to save the day, and we got a letter saying the money is on its way and it never came. The funds ran out.”
Despite COVID-19 hardships, Confetti hopes for business to return back to normal soon.
“We could also possibly look at opening our operation back to the way it was for the last 15, 16 years before we had to make the adjustment due to the COVID losses, the revenue losses,” he said.
Wight said they’re still working with the legislature to determine the number of funds to request moving forward.
The legislative session begins in January 2023.
