Info reveals chain restaurant franchisees been given much more cash than some small organizations

Ivory Vandezande

DENVER — For the initial time in about a 12 months, Shannon Hardenbrook feels like she’s finally on extra stable ground.

“I was able to carry back workforce and in fact start out paying out persons again alternatively of asking my spouse and children to volunteer,” reported Hardenbrook, proprietor of The Mac Shack, a gourmet mac and cheese food stuff truck with a brick and mortar site.

She’s operated the business enterprise for four several years. In the course of the pandemic even though truck profits declined, her brick and mortar place lost even more income.

“On the foodstuff truck, we dropped about 70%. In the brick and mortar, 90%,” she explained.

To steer clear of closing her standalone cafe, Hardenbrook, like other small organization owners, used for a slew of federal economical help.

“We had been two months away, two months away from depleting our cost savings completely,” Hardenbrook explained. “We obtained both of those of the PPP loans, which undoubtedly aided us, nonetheless, that went to pay out our personnel and not our rent.”

She also used for dollars by the Cafe Revitalization Fund, provided by the Tiny Business enterprise Administration to aid suitable firms impacted by COVID-19.

The SBA experienced claimed gals-owned, veteran-owned, socially and economically disadvantaged-owned and those people owned by persons of undeserved populations would be prioritized. In addition, an emphasis was placed on compact, mom-and-pop retailers.

Across the region, much more than 100,000 dining establishments were being awarded $28.6 billion. Hardenbrook’s enterprise was not 1 of them, but about 17,000 others in Colorado did acquire dollars.

On Tuesday, the fund formally shut.

According to RRF award allocation facts, in Colorado, a few Golden Corral spots acquired a put together $6.5 million. Quite a few lesser grants went to franchisees of large chains, like Dunkin’ Donuts, CiCi’s Pizza and Subway.

“I am a small astonished that it really is a compact business enterprise grant application, and I would not definitely take into account any individual that owns 20 locations, or five, or seven locations truly little enterprise,” Hardenbrook reported.

Denver7 reached out to the SBA’s Colorado workplace for much more particulars on how awards ended up selected.

The Colorado Restaurant Affiliation instructed Denver7 they are pushing for Colorado’s legislators to approve the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act of 2021, so additional dining establishments can get aid.

“I hope they all vote to replenish the grants,” Hardenbrook stated. “I suggest, we ended up shut down mainly as a result of no fault of our personal.”

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