This is the 2nd Round of Restaurant
Grants awarded this year with the support of SoCalGas' $1,000,000 Donation to the Restaurants Care
Resilience Fund to support small businesses and drive positive
change in diverse communities across Central and Southern California
LOS
ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, 88
independently owned restaurants across Central and Southern California received $5,000 grants from the California Restaurant
Foundation's (CRF) Restaurants Care Resilience Fund. Each
restaurant receiving a grant can use the funds for equipment and
technology upgrades, unforeseen hardship, employee retention
bonuses and employee training, helping California's independent restaurant owners to
continue their businesses during challenging times. The
$2.1 million fund, supported by
SoCalGas with a $1,000,000
donation, and other California
utility companies, is the largest to date in terms of overall
funding, individual grant sizes and grant utilization, and has
provided a total of 177 grants to restaurants in SoCalGas' service
area this year.
Eligibility for grants is limited to independent restaurants
with no more than five locations and less than $3 million in annual revenue. Of the 88 grant
recipients in SoCalGas' service area, 63% of this year's grant
winners self-identified as women-owned and 88% self-identified as
owned by people of color. About 67% of the grant funds are expected
to be used for equipment and technology upgrades and around 33% of
the $5,000 grants are designated for
unforeseen hardships, employee training, and employee bonuses. To
see the full list of grant recipients, please visit the Restaurants
Care Resilience Fund website.
"As part of our longstanding commitment to the communities we
serve, SoCalGas is proud to donate to the California Restaurant
Foundation's Restaurants Care Resilience Fund for the third
consecutive year," said David
Barrett, SoCalGas senior vice president, general
counsel, and California Restaurant Foundation board member.
"The fund supports independent restaurants, which are integral to
our local communities, and the foundation's grants are specifically
designed to improve the livelihoods of local restaurant owners and
their dedicated staff."
"SoCalGas has been an outstanding partner, providing steadfast
and invaluable support for the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund
since its inception in 2021. As a result, hundreds of independent
restaurant owners across SoCalGas' service area have been able to
fortify their businesses for the long haul," said Alycia Harshfield, Executive Director of
California Restaurant Foundation. "We are excited to provide
more restaurant owners with access to $5,000 grants, which can be used for various
purposes such as adopting technology, upgrading equipment,
facilitating employee training and retention, or overcoming
unforeseen challenges."
"The collaborative efforts of SoCalGas and the California
Restaurant Foundation are making a meaningful difference in the
livelihoods of small business proprietors, their workforce, and the
communities these restaurants enrich," said Rancho Cucamonga Mayor L. Dennis Michael. "By championing this
initiative, SoCalGas is fostering the prosperity of our cherished
local eateries, helping to ensure their sustained success for years
to come."
"I'm thrilled to have one of the restaurants in Placentia chosen
for the restaurant grant. Not only did our restaurants suffer
greatly during the pandemic, but they also continue to have
difficulties in the ever-changing economic environment, and the
different choices people are making on how they spend their
disposable income. The health and vitality of our small businesses,
such as Tlaquepaque, are key to the future of Placentia. I'm
grateful that SoCalGas continues to reinvest in our communities in
such a tangible way," said Rhonda
Shader, City of Placentia Council Member, District
1.
Since its inception, the Resilience Fund has awarded over 1,100
grants to independently owned restaurants across California. Among them, 68% self-identified as
women-owned, and 83% self-identified as owned by people of
color.
"For seven years, Cheesewalla has provided a new restaurant
style with delicious and reliable experience for our guests. Thanks
to this grant from SoCalGas and California Restaurant Foundation,
we will expand our business, acquiring new fryers and broilers for
our new cocktail bar's food menu," said Kadir Fakir, Co-Owner of
Cheesewalla. "We are so grateful that we will be able to grow
as a company, bring in more staff, and most importantly, connect
with our close-knit Redlands
community."
In addition to providing financial support to restaurants
through its donations to 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 help
drive positive change in diverse and underserved communities across
five years.
For more information about the California Restaurant Foundation
or their Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, please visit
www.restaurantscare.org.
More media assets per region can be found
here.
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
over 21 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 forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions about 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 "believe," "expect," "intend,"
"anticipate," "contemplate," "plan," "estimate," "project,"
"forecast," "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: decisions, investigations,
inquiries, regulations, denials or revocations of permits,
consents, approvals or other authorizations, renewals of
franchises, and other actions by the (i) California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, U.S.
Internal Revenue Service and other governmental and regulatory
bodies and (ii) 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 third-party
consents and approvals; macroeconomic trends or other factors that
could change our capital expenditure plans and their potential
impact on rate base or other growth; litigation, arbitrations and
other proceedings, and changes to laws and regulations, including
those related to tax and trade policy; 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 continue to become more
pronounced; the availability, uses, sufficiency, and cost of
capital resources and 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, (ii) instability in the capital
markets, or (iii) 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; 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.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/additional-88-local-restaurants-receive-5-000-assistance-grants-through-restaurants-care-resilience-fund-302018689.html
SOURCE Southern California Gas Company