AAPISTRONG Restaurant Fund is Now Open For Applications!

National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship (National ACE) has opened the AAPISTRONG Restaurant Fund for application.

With businesses slowly reopening, the AAPISTRONG Restaurant Fund aims to help revive struggling AAPI-owned restaurants that were negatively affected by the pandemic. National ACE understands that this process induces unexpected costs and challenges. Using Grubhub’s $2 million donation, they want to help businesses in this transition as they reopen or expand their capacity.

National ACE is accepting applications from August 4 to August 31, 2021 (or until all 1,500 applications are filled). They will accept 100 applicants per region.

Currently, the regions of Southern California and Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland are all filled. Moreover, as of August 11, the following regions are at 50% or more capacity: (1) Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota; (2) DC, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina; (3) Northern California; (4) Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee.

To qualify for the grant, the business must have the following requirements:

• The business must be Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian (AAPI) majority-owned (at least 51%)
• The business based in the United States
• The business must have been operational in 2019
• The business must be currently in operation
• The business’s primary licensed activity is "the preparation and serving of food”
• The business operates in a maximum of three locations (ineligible if operating in four or more locations)

This is a great opportunity to gain additional resources so your business can reopen together with the world. Hurry and apply now!