LITTLE ROCK, Ark — The Small Business Administration (SBA) Restaurant Revitalization Fund was distributed earlier this year to help food businesses across Arkansas stay afloat during the pandemic.
Funds ran out last month, but many who applied didn't receive funds.
Don Dugan, owner of Dugan's Pub, was one of the many disappointed in not receiving financial assistance after applying.
"I'm thrilled to death that those people got them. There's still about two-thirds of people that applied for the state of Arkansas who probably got nothing," said Dugan.
According to SBA, 1,887 restaurants in Arkansas applied for a total of $260 million. Just over 500 of those restaurants received funding, totaling just over $93 million.
Russ Melton is the owner of Diamond Bear Brewing Company and he said he's counting himself lucky for receiving the funds but is sad to see so many others who didn't.
"The revitalization fund ran out of money pretty quickly. I hope that they go back and address that, because there were some folks from my understanding that got approved and then didn't get funding, and I can imagine how disappointed they were," said Melton.
Dugan said he'd like for Congress to take a look at the funding again and replenish it so that those who went into debt over the past year can keep people employed.
"The funding that we asked for would easily take care of payroll for the next year. It would have really helped up to be able to sustain. We have a lot of incoming costs that were different than before. A lot of the supply chains are not as strong as they were," said Dugan.
He said a lot of costs have gone up for produce items for his restaurant.