New $3M Restaurant Grant Program To Prioritize Queensbridge Area

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Restaurants near Queensbridge Houses are among those getting first dibs in a new, $3 million program to help struggling food businesses by subsidizing their payroll costs.

The restaurant revitalization program, a collaboration between the Mayor's Fund for New York City and Office for Economic Opportunity and the nonprofit One Fair Wage, is meant to support food businesses and restaurant workers in communities that have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Queens, the city will prioritize assisting restaurants in Corona, Briarwood, Jamaica, the Rockaways and Queensbridge, according to the program's overview.

Restaurants will get up to $30,000 each to subsidize worker salaries over at least six weeks, and restaurant workers can also apply for one-time $500 payments through the program.

They will have to commit to providing at least 500 meals to essential workers and low-income residents in their community as a condition of getting the funds.

The program is expected to "save" 100 restaurants from the economic impact of the coronavirus and bring 1,000 restaurant employees back to work at pay rates of $20 per hour.

"Now is the time for change and this program helps us pave a path forward," Toya Williford of the Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC said Thursday. "Our dollars, which we raise with the help of thousands of grassroots donors from all around the country will help ensure workers earn a living wage both now and in the future."

We are partnering with @OneFairWage and @NYCMayorsFund to invest $3 million dollars into the Restaurant Revitalization Program. It will start by saving 100 restaurants in the heart and soul of our neighborhoods, bringing back roughly a thousand displaced workers at $20 per hour. pic.twitter.com/bjKyaREdSU
— Chirlane McCray (@NYCFirstLady) June 11, 2020

But the New York City Hospitality Alliance, which represents more than 24,000 businesses in the city, denounced de Blasio's new program as "dangling short-term monetary relief to financially devastated restaurants," executive director Andrew Rigie said in a statement.

New York City restaurants have operated on a limited basis — takeout and delivery only — since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

To apply, visit nyc.gov/opportunity or click here.

Patch editor Brendan Krisel contributed reporting.