The Selection Process

The Capital Region Restaurant Fund provides supplemental financial support for struggling bar and restaurant employees who are out of work due to a COVID-19 positive diagnosis or mandatory quarantine and provides limited financial support to local restaurant owner/operators whose establishments have been forced to close temporarily due to staff who have tested positive or are under mandatory quarantine.

In order to qualify for assistance restaurant workers be currently employed by a bar or restaurant in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga or Rensselaer County and be temporarily out of work due to a temporary COVID-19 related closure of the establishment at which they work or under a mandatory New York State Department of Health quarantine.

In order to qualify for assistance an owner must own and operate a bar or restaurant in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga or Rensselaer County and be temporarily closed due to an employee or employees testing positive for COVID-19, employees being under mandatory quarantine or by direction of a local or state Department of Health.

Bar or restaurant owners or employees who believe they may qualify may submit an application for assistance via the Capital Region Restaurant Fund website. Once an application is received volunteer staff will contact the applicant within 48 hours and will review and verify the application. During the verification process volunteers may request additional documentation from an employee applicant including but not limited to quarantine order, paycheck stubs, W-2 forms and 1099 forms. During the verification process volunteers may request additional document from a restaurant owner including but not limited to profit & loss statements, tax returns or sales reports from a point of sale system.

During the verification process volunteer staff will verify the accuracy of all data on the application and establish a recommendation for financial assistance based on the amount of lost income for an employee or restaurant owner. Once volunteers have verified an application and made a recommendation on assistance the application will be provided to our review board.

Applications will be reviewed on a first come, first serve basis by our review board once a week. The five member board will vote on each qualifying application. Not all applications will qualify and not all qualifying applications will receive funding. The availability of funding is at the discretion of the review board and will be based on a variety of factors including but not limited to the strength of the application, the degree to which it was able to be verified, the amount of lost income, whether the applicant has other sources of available income or is receiving other forms of assistance and the amount of available CRRF funds.

Once the review board has made a decision on an application the applicant will be notified within 24 hours. Financial assistance checks are mailed out weekly.