Supporting Our Hometowns: More than 100 Restaurants Selected to Receive $3,500 Grants to Help Get Back to Business

PG&E’s $500,000 Contribution Supports Fresno County Restaurants with Pandemic Recovery

May 10, 2021 - SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — As California moves to fully reopen in mid-June, many local restaurants are back in business or expanding their service. Today, the California Restaurant Foundation (CRF) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced 109 local restaurants that will receive $3,500 grants from the CRF’s Restaurants Care Resilience Fund to help them rebound from economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PG&E contributed $500,000 to the fund. The $3,500 cash grants are intended to assist small restaurants with payroll and related expenses such as increasing hours and bringing on new hires. In addition to the grant, restaurants will receive one year of small-business support services. A portion of the funds will go to individual restaurant workers facing unforeseen hardships.

The CRF is awarding the grants in six counties in PG&E’s Northern and Central California service area: Alameda, Fresno, Kern, Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Joaquin. A total of 15 small businesses in Fresno County were selected to receive grants, including Irene’s Café in Fresno.

“We are very grateful. This grant will pay my rent for one month. During these very difficult times we could not survive without the help we have gotten such as this grant,” said Irene Saul, Owner of Irene’s Cafe.

Throughout California, the CRF received nearly 1,000 completed grant applications, including 476 from the six eligible counties in PG&E’s service area. Qualified applicants had to be California resident-owned businesses, with special consideration given to minority- and women-owned businesses. Restaurants have to be currently open and have had a revenue loss of more than 20% from 2019 to 2020.

“Local restaurants are the heart of many communities, and it’s encouraging to see them fully re-opening their doors again and welcoming back regular and new customers. We’re grateful for the California Restaurant Foundation’s leadership in supporting this hard-hit industry and its workers. We continue to help these and all of our customers on the road to recovery from this public health crisis,” said PG&E Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Marlene Santos.

To see the full list of restaurants receiving grants from the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, please click here.

Assisting Businesses Customers

PG&E remains committed to serving all of its business customers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the crisis began, PG&E has:

• Implemented a moratorium on service disconnections for non-payment for all small business and residential customers.
• Offered flexible payment plans to support customers.
• Suspended all collection activities including notices and calls. Customers who are currently on payment plans will continue to receive courtesy reminders.
• Launched Time-of-Use rate plan outreach, contacting customers who would benefit from the new rate plan and save money.
• Provided resource information to all business customers, including PG&E resources and external support including the U.S. Small Business Paycheck Protection Program and California state support programs.
• Provided newsletters and direct mail information on COVID-19 resources.
• Conducted outreach to eligible customers to enroll in a discounted rate for businesses struggling to stay open.

For more information on PG&E COVID-19 resources for your business, including ways to reduce energy costs with support programs and easy-to-use tools, go to pge.com/smbsupport

Support for Nonprofits During Pandemic

PG&E’s $500,000 contribution to the CRF is part of the $1.25 million it is contributing in 2021 to nonprofit organizations assisting vulnerable individuals, families and communities, as well as small businesses, as they work to recover from the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributions are focused on nonprofits tackling food insecurity, minority- and women-owned small businesses, general community relief, utility bill assistance and youth programming.

PG&E’s continuing support for its customers and communities builds on the $1 million in funding to nonprofits supporting COVID-19 relief in 2020 from PG&E and The PG&E Corporation Foundation. These charitable contributions are shareholder-funded, not funded by PG&E customers.

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com.

Source: PG&E