Building Resilience in CA’s Restaurants
Since 2021, the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund has awarded $12 million across 2,369 grants to independent restaurants, caterers, and food trucks across California—supporting burger joints, taquerias, bakeries, and more that are the heart of our communities.
2026 GRANT CYCLE: The grant cycle is now closed. Subscribe here to receive alerts and information for future grants.
Thank You to Our Funders
Building Resilience
$5,000 Grants for:
Kitchen Equipment
Technology Upgrades
Employee Training/Retention
Unforeseen Hardship
Past Grant Recipients!
$12 million . 2,369 grants . 6 years
Funding Categories
- Equipment upgrades – 35%
- Employee training + retention – 19%
- COVID – 13%
- LA Fires – 11%
- Technology upgrades – 10%
- Hollywood Strikes – 7%
- Unforeseen hardship – 4%
Fun Facts
- 90% are single-unit operators
- 50 counties in CA represented
- Full-service: 52%
- Average number of years in business: 11
- The restaurants collectively employ ~30,000 people
Restaurant Spotlights
meet a few of the incredible restaurants
The Serving Spoon, Inglewood
Opened in 1983, The Serving Spoon has become a community staple in Inglewood! The restaurant is now owned by Justin and Jessica, the 3rd generation owners.
“We are the family reunion that you can come to everyday of the week.”
Hila Gelato, San Francisco
After spending over 20 years in Sicily working in the food industry and another 10 years as a chef in a gelato shop, Hila seized the opportunity to bring my expertise to San Francisco. With the support of the local community, she opened Hila Gelato and Caffè, a place where they craft Sicilian gelato and desserts from scratch and serve Italian-style coffee drinks like espresso, cappuccino, and affogatos.
TAP Wine Lounge, Sacramento
TAP Wine Lounge stands out not just as a wine lounge but as a community hub where people come to unwind, connect, and enjoy each other’s company. TAP exclusively serves and showcases the largest selection of Black boutique wine brands in Northern California, all within a sophisticated living room setting.
How did this start?
Restaurants Care, a program of the nonprofit California Restaurant Foundation, is a relief fund for food and beverage workers. We provide grants of up to $2,500 directly to cooks, servers, dishwashers and more when they face an unforeseen hardship.
Given the extraordinary circumstances brought on by the pandemic, we recognized a need to go further and help restaurant businesses stay open and keep their crews employed. The Resilience Fund was born.
What started as a response to the pandemic has evolved into a permanent fund to build resilience within our restaurant community.
We love restaurants. We’re here to help.
Media Inquiries
For media inquiries, please contact Powerhouse + Co
Kelly Itatani at kelly@powerhouseandco.com
Media Coverage
A Relief Fund with Heart
In addition to our small business grants, Restaurants Care also offers relief funding to food and beverage workers in crisis. Year-round we help the servers, cooks, and dishwashers at the heart of restaurants with grants fo up to $2,500. To learn more about our fund for food and beverage workers click here.
Sign up to receive updates and news from Restaurants Care
Subscribe
If you would like to be notified about additional grant opportunities and resources from Restaurants Care, join our mailing list here.