Louisville’s national reputation as a culinary center is driven by the creative work of its independent restaurants, the rich trove of small businesses that entertain and inspire us, meal after meal. These are small businesses with big hearts and ambitious visions.
The hard-working folks who staff these restaurants sometimes find themselves in need of emergency financial assistance due to illness, injury, or other causes. That’s where APRON, Inc. comes in, especially in this time of unprecedented upheaval. APRON has released a statement about its efforts to help restaurant employees who are in the weeds as the COVID-19 crisis compels closing or vastly scaling back local food service operations.
Note that APRON’s outreach specifically targets employees who have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus.
The statement follows in its entirety.
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Statement regarding APRON Inc and COVID-19
APRON has been honored to be a part of the Louisville Restaurant Community for the last eight and a half years.
In this time we have been an integral part of the healing process during many challenges- fires, floods, and roof collapses, in addition to the everyday setbacks our grantees have suffered.
A new challenge is about to hit our employees and we will be here, as we always are, to help as well as we can.
In an effort to help as many people as possible, while at the same time keeping a working reserve to help out our regular grantees, here is what we are doing.
- We are setting up a $10,000 emergency fund.
- We will be giving grants of $400 to eligible applicants.
To be eligible for a grant a person must:
1) Be diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus (we will require a doctor’s letter).
2) Be employed in an independent restaurant at least six months.
3) Be able to produce bills to be paid (we do not give money directly to grantees).
With business slow downs, possible quarantines, and closures we wish we could do more, but we are a small charity and have a finite amount of money to be dispersed. As time goes on we will revisit these guidelines and let you all know of any changes.
Please keep safe in the coming months- and know that we are here to serve those who serve others. To apply: www.aproninc.org/application
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