Restaurants across America are facing an existential crisis because of Donald Trump’s mismanagement of COVID-19.
 
While iconic restaurants and community staples spent the past six months supplying food to communities in need and adapting our businesses to mandated closures, social distancing measures and a historic economic collapse, the Trump administration blew the pandemic response. Ad hoc stay-at-home orders, conflicting guidance between government officials and the President, personal protective equipment shortages, and arbitrary social distancing capacity cap guidance all wasted time and money and dug the prospect of a recovery into an even deeper hole. Now, the industry is expected to lose an estimated $240 billion by the end of this year, and many restaurants and small businesses are on financial life support.
How did we get to this perilous moment?

According to the National Restaurant Association's analysis, three decades of restaurant jobs were lost during the national shutdown in March and April. After months of lockdowns and patchwork opportunities for our businesses to generate revenue, some restaurants were finally able to reopen with limiting seating, makeshift outdoor patios and various takeout and delivery options. However, even then, many owners indicated that the current conditions could put them out of business because of crushed profit margins. In New York alone, as many as one out of three small businesses are facing imminent closure.

Throughout the crisis, the restaurant industry has begged this administration for support. We have pleaded with officials to fix the PPP program, recognize the oncoming tsunami of restaurant closings that we are now starting to see and respond with a plan. Yet, at every turn, the President has mishandled the response. He has downplayed our struggles, refuted the idea that restaurants will suffer because they rely on social interaction and insisted there were no personal protective equipment shortages that are required to keep restaurant staff safe.

In failing to lead our country through this crisis, Donald Trump has proven his unfitness to hold the office of the presidency. He has failed the restaurant industry, our employees, our customers, and the stakes are too high to continue down this path. America needs a new direction and real leadership. We need to elect Joe Biden as the next President of the United States.

As President, Joe Biden would take the immediate steps needed to solve the COVID crisis and support America’s small businesses and restaurants in our recovery. He would establish a true small business fund to ensure resources are set aside for restaurants, main street shops and other entrepreneurs. He would authorize more generous loans that allow for small businesses in need to both keep workers on payroll and cover fixed costs for the duration of the crisis. And he would provide a guarantee that every qualifying small business will get relief, rather than capping funds in a way that forces small firms to compete against one another.

American restaurateurs believe deeply in the American Dream. We create jobs and pathways to economic opportunity. We strengthen community bonds and contribute to the unique character of American towns and cities. And we are on the front lines of the fight for America’s recovery from COVID-19. Without a change in leadership, many of our businesses simply will not survive to see the end of this crisis.
We must elect Joe Biden on November 3.

Sincerely,