New Jersey is adding another $10 million in a third round of funding to a program that essentially pays pandemic-hit restaurants to prepare meals for residents facing extreme hunger.
Applications for this latest tranche of funding for Sustain and Serve NJ run online from March 1 through April 1.
Officials at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which runs the program, estimate that $34 million in Sustain & Serve NJ grants have been awarded to 31 organizations and nonprofits across the state.
They in turn purchased an estimated 3.3 million bulk meals from more than 400 participating restaurants since March last year.
Under the expansions approved by the NJEDA at its Wednesday board meeting, applicant organizations now have to meet a lower threshold to qualify for the grants.
Whereas before the applicant needed to show that since March 2020 they’ve purchased 3,000 bulk meals costing at least $50,000, now they only have to show that they’ve bought at least 1,500 meals costing at least $25,000.
Gov. Phil Murphy, New Jersey Economic Development Authority CEO Tim Sullivan and Fulfill NJ CEO Triada Stampas discuss the Sustain and Serve effort with restaurant owner Michael at Jr’s on Feb. 4, 2022. – EDWIN J. TORRES / NJ GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Up to half of that can be meals donated to restaurants, if the organization can show invoices “verifying the number of meals and monetary value of the donated meals,” reads the NJEDA announcement.
Meanwhile the cap on the cost per meal is being raised from $10 per meal to $12 per meal.
According to Tara Colton, the NJEDA’s vice president of economic security, these expansions were fueled by an “increased and continued demand for services facing nonprofits.”
Eligibility is still limited to restaurants with up to 50 full-time equivalent employees.
The effort began after the implementation of restrictions that prohibited indoor dining between March and June of 2020, and then limited restaurants to outdoor dining through September of that year. Capacity limits remained in place for the next year, and many restaurants suffered.
Sustain and Serve was modeled after a narrower program that exclusively served Newark.
“In addition to supporting the nonprofit organizations that play a crucial role within their communities, the program also helps local restaurants keep their doors open and their employees paid, while connecting individuals facing food insecurity with much-needed meals,” reads a Feb. 9 statement from Gov. Phil Murphy.
The grants clock in at between $100,000 and $2 million to nonprofits, like food banks, who have to give the meals out for free to residents in need.
“Most restaurants aren’t chain restaurants with a corporate parent able to make up for losses. These are single-location restaurants where a restaurateur has invested not just their heart and soul, but also their savings,” Murphy said at a November event in New Brunswick announcing a previous round of Sustain & Serve funding.
NJEDA officials estimate that nearly $1 billion of COVID-relief has gone to businesses over the past two years in the form of grants, low-interest loans, and loan guarantees to carry some of the risks for investments into startups.
