Since receiving a $1 million contribution from the Kemper family foundations, the Colorado Restaurant Foundation (CRF) launched a new fund called the Independent Restaurant Workers Relief Fund. The fund will provide one-time grants of up to $1,000 to individual workers whose last place of employment was an independently-operated, Colorado-based restaurant, and who’ve been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Qualified applicants to the Independent Restaurant Workers Relief Fund must also meet at least one of the following touchstones:
1. Diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19).
2. Quarantined under doctor’s care.
3. Unable to receive government assistance.
4. Unemployed, underemployed, or furloughed.
The Kemper Family’s contribution to the CRF will also go toward expanding the non-profit’s general Angel Relief Fund (ARF), which routinely provides financial support for hospitality industry employees encountering extraordinary hardship — pandemic-related or not. Since the onslaught of the pandemic, the Angel Relief Fund has offered COVID-19 Support Grants to support unemployed, underemployed, and furloughed workers. Applicants to the ARF COVID-19 Support Grant must meet the above criteria, but unlike the Independent Restaurant Workers Relief Fund, their last place of employment doesn’t have to be independently owned and operated. To date, the ARF COVID-19 Support initiative has distributed more than 200 grants, the collective value of which is over $60,000.
The CRF has also put together a Support Services Hub, which lists coronavirus-specific federal, state, and community resources for housing, transportation, mental health, medical, child care assistance support and more. Bookmark it here.
To apply for the Independent Restaurant Workers Relief Fund or an ARF COVID-19 Support Grant, go here. Information is available in Spanish and English. To donate to these funds, go here.
To learn about other community-driven initiatives to support local restaurant workers, get the scoop on Kevin Galaba’s Friends and Family nonprofit here.