Last week the USBG National Charity Foundation announced that it would pause acceptance of new applications for grants under its Bartender Emergency Assistance Program COVID-19 Relief Campaign. This week, the Foundation confirms that it has approved nearly 30,000 grants and that fundraising for the program will continue in an effort to assist the more than 32,000 additional eligible applicants currently in the grant portal.
“We’ve always said we’d disburse as many meaningful grants as we could until the money runs out. The reality is we’re drawing ever closer to that point, but there are still so many people who need assistance,” said Kim Haasarud, USBG National Charity Foundation volunteer board member.
While bars and restaurants across the country have begun opening to varying degrees, the need in the bartending community for financial assistance remains high. In Texas, for example, bars are able to open at seventy-five percent capacity – though that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be seventy-five percent full. New York City bars can offer delivery and take-away cocktails, but the city is still weeks away from reopening under official guidelines. Bars in Los Angeles are still closed, but surrounding areas including Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties are wide open. In each case, bartenders are left with either significantly reduced hours or no hours at all.
Haasarud continued, “We’re in a delicate place right now with bars and restaurants reopening at different rates and to varying degrees depending on where you are in the country. Our immediate priority is to aggressively fundraise in order to help as many of the eligible bartenders currently in our portal as possible.”
What is the purpose of the Bartender Emergency Assistance Program?
BEAP was created in 2015 and has since operated continuously to assist qualified bartenders, bar backs, and bar servers who are in need of financial assistance as a result of a catastrophic event or an emergency hardship. The USBG National Charity Foundation adheres to a strict set of procedures in order to ensure that recipients are selected on an objective and nondiscriminatory basis.
What is the USBG National Charity Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Campaign?
Via the campaign, modest, yet meaningful emergency grants of $150-500 drawn from generous donations will be allocated to as many eligible applicants as possible so as to be as impactful as possible. It’s important to be clear that these emergency grants are intended to supplement federal relief programs that are designed to help with larger, sustained expenses.
Statistics as of June 16:
- Total grants approved: 29,981
- Total donors: 4,300
- Total $ committed: $9 million
- Total volunteers: 500
- Total volunteer hours: 11,000
- Link to donors and supporters to date: HERE
More information on the USBG National Charity Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Campaign can be found here.
Follow updates through USBG National Charity Foundation social media channels: IG/FB/TWITTER: @usbgncf/@USBGNCF/@USBGNCF
Tune into the USBG National Charity Foundation’s weekly Instagram Live briefing @usbgncf on Thursday, June 18 at noon Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern.