Pueblo restaurants receive 2.8 million dollars in federal grant money
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- In March of this year, Congress created the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) that would fund in need restaurants that were hit hard financially by the pandemic. In Pueblo, 26 businesses received over 2.8 million dollars in funding.
One of those businesses was Shamrock Brewing, an Irish-pub staple for the area. They received close to $250,000 dollars in federal grant money.
This funding came at a time when they needed most, as they were forced to close before one of their busiest days of the year, St. Patricks day.
"Our walk in coolers were stocked fully. We had prepped everything from scratch. We had cooked all the corn beef. We had everything going in addition to all the fish being prepped. We had cases and cases of fish and everything," Shawn Sanborn, President of Shamrock Brewing said. "We gave that to employees, we gave it away. There was tens of thousands of dollars worth of product."
The 26 restaurants in Pueblo received anywhere from $3,000 to $500,000 in RRF federal funding. For Shamrock Brewing, the money was vital for them to retain every full-time and part-time employee.
"I made a commitment to my operating partners and all the employees and the City of Pueblo. We would have made it through, but we made a commitment to them."
