88 Restaurants across SoCalGas' Service Area
will receive grants to support technology adoption, equipment
upgrades, employee onboarding and retention, or unforeseen
hardships
LOS
ANGELES, Oct. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning
today, independent restaurants can apply for a $5,000 grant from the California Restaurant
Foundation's (CRF) Restaurants Care® Resilience Fund. Earlier
this year, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) donated
$1 million to the Resilience Fund,
bringing it to $2.1
million—the largest fund to date since the program's
inception in 2021. Grants will be awarded to 182 California
restaurants, including 88 in SoCalGas' service area, and funds may
be used for technology adoption, equipment upgrades, employee
onboarding and retention, or unforeseen hardships.
"For the third consecutive year, SoCalGas is supporting the
California Restaurant Foundation's Restaurants Care Resilience Fund
to provide grants to independent restaurants. These restaurants
play a vital role in our local communities, and the foundation's
grants bolster and maintain the livelihoods of local restaurant
proprietors, their staff, and their establishments,"
said David Barrett, SoCalGas senior vice president, general
counsel, and California Restaurant Foundation board member.
This is the second round of grants in 2023, made possible
through donations from SoCalGas, the PG&E Corporation
Foundation (PG&E Foundation), and San Diego Gas and Electric
(SDG&E). The first round of 2023 Restaurants Care® Resilience
Fund grants were distributed in June and restaurants that submitted
applications in the spring but who were not funded do not need to
reapply to be considered for this round of grants.
Resilience Fund applications are open October 25 through November 8, 2023. Eligibility
is open to California restaurants
located in the utility companies' service areas, must be open for
at least one year, have up to five units, have annual revenue of up
to $3 million, with special
consideration for those owned by women or people of color.
Applications can be found at
www.restaurantscare.org/resilience.
"SoCalGas has provided invaluable and unwavering support for the
Restaurants Care Resilience Fund since its inception in 2021, which
has led to hundreds of independent restaurant owners across
Southern California fortifying
their businesses for the long haul," said Alycia Harshfield, Executive Director of
California Restaurant Foundation. "We are thrilled to open
applications for the second time this year and again offer
$5,000 grants to owners looking to
enhance their restaurants via technology adoption, equipment
upgrades, employee onboarding and retention, or overcoming
unforeseen hardships."
Since its inception, the Resilience Fund has awarded over 1,100
grants to independently owned restaurants across California. Among them, 68% were women-owned,
and 83% were owned by people of color.
"With the grant we received this summer from SoCalGas, will were
able to purchase a standing fryer, refrigerator, and sandwich bar.
We've been able to make food more efficiently, keep our ingredients
fresher, and have provided our customers a better dining
experience," said Stacy Davis from
Stacy's Kitchen in Blythe,
California.
In addition to providing financial support to restaurants
through the foundation, SoCalGas offers programs and services
to help business customers select energy-efficient equipment.
Restaurant owners can schedule a 'Try Before You Buy' demo with
natural gas cooking equipment before purchasing, request a no-cost
energy survey to be conducted by a utility expert, and obtain
information on rebates and incentives for eligible energy efficient
natural gas cooking equipment, water heating, heat recovery
products, and energy-efficient upgrade installation.
SoCalGas' support of the California Restaurant Fund is part of
the company's ASPIRE 2045 sustainability goals, which include a
plan to invest $50 million to drive
positive change in diverse and underserved communities across five
years.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles,
SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers
affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas service to
21.8 million consumers across 24,000 square miles of Central
and Southern California. Gas
delivered through the company's pipelines will continue to play a
key role in California's clean
energy transition—providing electric grid reliability and
supporting wind and solar energy deployment.
SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most
innovative energy company in America. In support of that mission,
SoCalGas is committed to the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse
gas emissions in its operations and delivery of energy by 2045
and to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply
to core customers with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030.
Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by dairy farms,
landfills, and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also
committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while
keeping bills affordable for customers. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of
Sempra (NYSE: SRE), an energy infrastructure holding company
based in San Diego.
For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect
with SoCalGas on X (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and
Facebook.
This press release contains statements that constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements are based on assumptions with respect to the future,
involve risks and uncertainties, and are not guarantees. Future
results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in
any forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements
represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this
press release. We assume no obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.
In this press release, forward-looking statements can be
identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "intends,"
"anticipates," "contemplates," "plans," "estimates," "projects,"
"forecasts," "should," "could," "would," "will," "confident,"
"may," "can," "potential," "possible," "proposed," "in process,"
"construct," "develop," "opportunity," "initiative," "target,"
"outlook," "optimistic," "poised," "maintain," "continue,"
"progress," "advance," "goal," "aim," "commit," or similar
expressions, or when we discuss our guidance, priorities, strategy,
goals, vision, mission, opportunities, projections, intentions or
expectations.
Factors, among others, that could cause actual results and
events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any
forward-looking statement include risks and uncertainties relating
to: decisions, investigations, inquiries, regulations, denials or
revocations of permits, consents, approvals or other
authorizations, renewals of franchises, and other actions by (i)
the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department
of Energy, and other governmental and regulatory bodies and (ii)
the U.S. and states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions
therein where we do business; the success of business development
efforts and construction projects, including risks in (i)
completing construction projects or other transactions on schedule
and budget, (ii) realizing anticipated benefits from any of these
efforts if completed, and (iii) obtaining the consent or approval
of third parties; litigation, arbitrations and other proceedings,
and changes to laws and regulations; cybersecurity threats,
including by state and state-sponsored actors, of ransomware or
other attacks on our systems or the systems of third parties with
which we conduct business, including the energy grid or other
energy infrastructure, all of which have become more pronounced due
to recent geopolitical events; our ability to borrow money on
favorable terms and meet our obligations, including due to (i)
actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings
or place those ratings on negative outlook or (ii) rising interest
rates and inflation; failure of our counterparties to honor their
contracts and commitments; the impact on affordability of our
customer rates and our cost of capital and on our ability to pass
through higher costs to customers due to (i) volatility in
inflation, interest rates and commodity prices and (ii) the cost of
the clean energy transition in California; the impact of climate and
sustainability policies, laws, rules, regulations, disclosures and
trends, including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on
natural gas, increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory
environment for California natural
gas distribution companies, the risk of nonrecovery for stranded
assets, and our ability to incorporate new technologies; weather,
natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures,
explosions, terrorism, information system outages or other events
that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities or systems,
cause the release of harmful materials or fires or subject us to
liability for damages, fines and penalties, some of which may not
be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms or insurance or may
impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable
insurance; the availability of natural gas and natural gas storage
capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the pipeline
system or limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage
facilities; changes in tax and trade policies, laws and
regulations, including tariffs, revisions to international trade
agreements and sanctions, any of which may increase our costs,
reduce our competitiveness, impact our ability to do business with
certain counterparties, or impair our ability to resolve trade
disputes; and other uncertainties, some of which are difficult to
predict and beyond our control.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the
reports that the company has filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the
EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and
on Sempra's website, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely
unduly on any forward-looking statements.
Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra
Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC
(Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.P.I. de
C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as
the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company or
Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra
Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas
Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the
CPUC.
About the California Restaurant Foundation
(CRF):
California is home
to more than 90,000 eating and drinking places that ring up more
than $72 billion in sales and employ
more than 1.6 million workers, making restaurants an indisputable
driving force in the state's economy. The California Restaurant
Foundation is a non-profit that empowers and invests in
California's restaurant workforce.
Founded in 1981, CRF supports the restaurant community through
relief grants for restaurant workers facing a hardship, job and
life skills training for 13,500 high school students each year, and
scholarships. For more information visit
www.calrestfoundation.org.
MEDIA CONTACT
Denise
Campos
Office of Media and Public Information
(213) 244-2442
dcampos@socalgas.com
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SOURCE Southern California Gas Company