DENVER – The Colorado Restaurant Foundation recently announced nine Black-owned restaurants as the recipients of special grants to encourage customers to return.
Planterra Foods contributed $20,000 to create a grant program that targets Black-owned restaurants across the state.
Nine restaurants were awarded $2,000 each to spend on gift cards.
“Each restaurant gets a grant, that grant buys gift cards, those gift cards got to those customers who spend $25 or more as a ‘thank you’ to generate repeat business,” said Laura Shunk, the President of the Colorado Restaurant Foundation.
Shunk told Denver7, even though restaurants are starting to rebound, many are still struggling — especially full-service independent restaurants and minority-owned businesses.
With the success of using similar grant programs to target neighborhoods like Cherry Creek in the past, this time the Colorado Restaurant Foundation and Planterra Foods decided to help Black-owned restaurants.
“People have said this program is a real shot in the arm for business, it generates business in the door twice, it brings people in to get the gift card and it also brings them back,” said Shunk.
Five restaurants in the Denver-metro received grants including: African Grill and Bar (Lakewood), Coco and Crepes (Denver), Coffee at the Point (Denver), Lucy's Ethiopian Restaurant (Denver), and Ms. Betty's Cooking (Denver).