Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has announced $6 million in COVID relief funding for Lancaster County Restaurants. The funds are part of $145 million in pandemic relief for the hospitality industry in the Commonwealth.
As published by the Pennsylvania Government website, Gov. Wolf joined the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, and the owners of local restaurant Silantra Asian Street Kitchen to highlight the grant funding provided to local restaurants.
“Pennsylvania has made significant progress rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, but our hospitality industry still needs support,” said Gov. Wolf. “I applaud our small business owners for their courage, tenacity, and creativity during the past year and a half, and my administration stands firm in our commitment to continuing to support them as they move forward in recovery.”
Today, I'm in Lancaster to talk about the success of the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program (CHIRP).
In 2020, we set aside $145M to help businesses recover across the commonwealth.
Now we're seeing the results, and I couldn't be prouder of the progress. pic.twitter.com/TIxmzzVaGO
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) July 26, 2021
The funding has been made through the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program (CHIRP). Lancaster County received $6,045,000 in CHIRP funding from the state, and 316 businesses received grants.
Assistance provided
Last year, Governor Wolf secured $145 million in funding supporting businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the commonwealth has worked with counties and economic development partners in order to provide assistance to the hospitality industry.
Counties administered the funding through one or more designated Community Economic Development Organizations (CEDO) or Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), which began processing applications from businesses in each county on March 15. All funding was distributed to businesses as of last week.
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“We were happy to continue to work with our partners at Economic Development Company of Lancaster County in our ongoing effort to do all we can to assist all the small businesses that were impacted by the pandemic,” said Heather Valudes, vice president of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. “We applaud the state for providing these funds and, more specifically, for targeting them to help those local businesses most in need.”