GEN and DoorDash today announced the Restaurant Disaster Relief Fund is now live for the 2023 funding year in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Administered through GEN’s Small Business Grants Program in partnership with DoorDash, the Restaurant Disaster Relief Fund will provide $10,000 grants to restaurants impacted by natural disasters.
The fund is also open to restaurants in the United States and Puerto Rico through Hello Alice. The fund initially launched in 2021 and provided 100 restaurants in the United States and Puerto Rico with $10,000 grants to help them recover from natural disasters. To date, grants have been provided to restaurants in 27 states across four funding rounds. Fifty-two grant recipients were women-owned businesses and 75 were owned by people of color.
“Small businesses are the beating heart of local communities, and it only takes one natural disaster to close down a small restaurant permanently,” said Sueli Shaw, Director of Social Impact at DoorDash. “We’re honored to have helped so many restaurants keep their doors open since launching the fund in 2021, and proud to expand that impact by opening the fund to restaurants in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.”
In order to apply for relief, restaurants must have at least one brick & mortar location but no more than three, fewer than 50 employees per location, been open for at least 6 months and have been impacted by an eligible state or federally-declared natural disaster. The 2023 funding cycles in Australia, Canada and New Zealand will take place across four rounds:
- Round 1: July 5, 2023-September 29, 2023
- Round 2: October 2, 2023-December 31, 2023
- Round 3: January 2, 2024-March 29, 2024