The Small Business Administration is partnering with POS providers Clover, NCR Corp., Square, and Toast for facilitating federal aid to restaurants.

Toast, the provider of Point Of Sale (POS) systems to restaurants, announced Thursday its partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to help provide customers with access to funds made available through the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF). (Business Wire)

Restaurant Revitalization Fund

A $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund has been established under the American Rescue Plan Act to make direct federal aid available to restaurants – one of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic. The aid will be made available as free monetary awards to restaurants and other food and beverage businesses that sustained financial losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligible restaurants can work with their POS providers to apply for the aid. Grants could be as much as $5 million per restaurant or $10 million per multi-unit operation. In view of the unprecedented situation, a very high volume of applications for aid is expected.

Toast said its partnership with the SBA could help Toast customers through a simplified application process for RRF grant applications by May 2021.

Restaurants not having access to a POS provider may apply for aid at restaurants.sba.gov.

Toast initiatives

“Toast is proud to be part of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund story; since March 2020, we’ve written letters to Congress, actively lobbied to help secure this funding for the restaurant industry, and partnered with groups like the Independent Restaurant Coalition to advocate for restaurateurs and their employees throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Nick DeLeonardis SVP & GM, Payments, Lending, and Payroll at Toast. “Our actions helped enact meaningful change and allowed us to support our customer community when they needed it most. We’re thrilled to partner with the SBA to deliver access to critical funding for restaurants as the industry approaches recovery in the coming months.”

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