Letter to Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House - North Carolina's $21.4 billion restaurant industry is vital to the economy and accounts for 56% of all jobs lost in the state

Letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

We appreciate your ongoing efforts to provide relief to the devastated restaurant industry,
including the $25 billion grant program currently being negotiated in the budget reconciliation
legislation.
North Carolina is home to nearly 20,000 eating and drinking locations, approximately
76% of which are independently owned - many of these by women and people of color. Food
service businesses in North Carolina generate $21.4 billion, account for 8.7% of all employment
in the state, and made up 16% of the state's sales tax revenue in 2019. In short, our economy
relies on the success of independent restaurants.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on these
businesses. Today, over 75% of North Carolina's restaurants and other food services businesses
are in danger of closing permanently. Fine dining has declined by 85% and casual dining has
declined by 65%. Approximately 56% of lost jobs in North Carolina are in the leisure and
hospitality industry, which includes food services. These losses reverberate throughout the
economy and affect all parts of the supply chain, including North Carolina's 40,450 small farms.
As discussions regarding COVID relief continue, we urge you to make independent
restaurants a top priority. We also urge you to consider longer-term solutions for the restaurant
industry, such as those offered by the RESTAURANTS Act. While the $25 billion grant
program will provide a temporary lifeline, we believe additional assistance will be required to
enable independent restaurants to keep their doors open until conditions improve.
Thank you for considering this request. Restaurants play a vital role in our economy and
in our communities, and we must help them to bridge the gap so that they can fully reopen on the
other side of the pandemic.

Very truly yours,