The James Beard Foundation will soon give out something that may be more valuable than its high-profile culinary awards: emergency grants to help independent restaurants stay afloat.

Meanwhile, the National Restaurant Association is launching a new grant program to put money directly in the hands of American restaurant workers.

Grants for restaurants

The New York-based James Beard Foundation, best known for the James Beard awards it normally dishes out each spring, created its new Food & Beverage Relied Fund to make grants of $15,000 available to restaurants across the country.

The group opened the application process for it today, with grants available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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The grants are aimed at “small, independent restaurant” that need immediate funds to pay operating expenses, according to the foundation.

The group defines these businesses as independently-owned restaurants with 100 or fewer full and part time employees as of Feb. 15, 2020, or a restaurant group in which each member restaurant had 100 or fewer employees on that date. Restaurants of any type that meet this criteria can apply.

The foundation said its grant funds will be divided evenly across the country along the 12 regions it uses for its awards (Louisiana is in a region that includes Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida and Puerto Rico).

The application for the first round of grants will remain open for through Friday, April 3, at 3 p.m. (ET).

To apply, and see eligibility requirements, visit jamesbeard.org/relief-fund-application.

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Grants for restaurant workers

The hospitality sector has been broadly devastated by the coronavirus fight. Grants and similar private assistance have been emerging as business and individuals wait for government relief to materialize.

Also this week, the National Restaurant Association begins its new Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, offering grants of $500 per person. Applications open Thursday (April 2).

These one-time grants are for people who worked either full time of part time in the restaurant industry as a primary source of income for at least 90 days in the past year, and were financially impacted by the pandemic. See application and eligibility details at rerf.us.

Here at home, the Greater New Orleans Foundation created its Louisiana Service and Hospitality Family Assistance Program, with support from Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, and from the McIlhenny Company, the company that produced Tabasco.

Information on that assistance can be found at gnof.org/service-and-hospitality-employee-family-program.

The United Way of Southeast Louisiana quickly established its Hospitality Cares Pandemic Response Fund, though it drew such a surge of demand that applications are now on hold as the group seeks more funding.

This year’s James Beard awards have been postponed until sometime in the summer. Semifinalists for this year’s awards were announced in February, and included more than a dozen New Orleans restaurants and chefs. Finalists awards would have been announced last week, but that part of the foundation’s usual process has also been postponed.

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