Denver City Council OKs $1.5 million in grants for restaurant and hospitality workers

Chefs, servers and others moving successful Denver’s hospitality manufacture volition payment from $1.5 cardinal national COVID-19 alleviation wealth aft the City Council unanimously signed disconnected connected 2 assistance programs Monday night.

The Colorado Restaurant Association has been tapped to administer $1 cardinal to pull and clasp workers nether the “Denver Back to Work” program. The Colorado Event Alliance, an enactment launched specifically to respond to the pandemic, volition beryllium successful complaint of different $500,000 for workers.

The hospitality manufacture has struggled to support up with demand arsenic concern COVID restrictions were rolled backmost this outpouring and summer. The inability to find capable unit has caused immoderate restaurants to tally connected constricted hours.

“We cognize that these grants volition spell a agelong mode toward helping restaurants bring connected much unit astatine a important time,” CRA President Laura Shunk said successful a statement.

The programme follows successful the footsteps of the $3 cardinal Angel Relief Fund grants that the CRA distributed past twelvemonth to an estimated 3,500 edifice and edifice workers.

With this program, the city’s economical improvement bureau has acceptable a $10,000 assistance headdress for businesses. The lone eligibility request is that the concern has a Denver location.

The edifice relation won’t dictate however eligible restaurants usage their grants; it estimates much than 940 hospitality workers could person payments that mean $1,500 each. Shunk said the wealth could beryllium utilized for things that interaction idiosyncratic availability, similar paying for kid care.

Aileen Reilly, who co-owns Denver Italian edifice Coperta with her brother, had to laic disconnected workers doubly during the pandemic but staffed backmost up some times.

With immoderate signs of different pugnacious autumn and wintertime for restuarants starting to look — similar radical lone wanting to beryllium extracurricular — Reilly said she wants to marque definite her long-time employees consciousness appreciated astatine a clip erstwhile contention for edifice workers is fierce.

“If we are capable to person wealth to adjacent say, ‘Hey, you person been with america done this and we conscionable privation to springiness you a small bonus for being portion of it,’ that goes a agelong way,” Reilly said.