GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — While 2020 presented many challenges for restaurants everywhere, the state wants to help as we head into 2021.
On Tuesday afternoon, multiple state agencies hosted a webinar to share resources available to restaurant owners and staff. Through the COVID-19 Workplace Safety Ambassador Program, restaurants can have consultants from the state come and give them safety guidance. Once they pass the program, they will then receive a sticker for their window to show they took part in it.
Small Business Development Centers around Michigan also offer training for techniques to help stay afloat.
"Around cashflow management, around issues of reopening, around issues of trying to diversify different lines of business," says Amanda Bright-McClanahan from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
With some restaurant owners were frustrated about having to close indoor dining with little warning in the fall, the webinar also addressed why they can't learn about COVID-19 orders from the state before they are announced.
"We're using the very latest data to make our decisions," says Sarah Esty of the MDHHS. "So if we make decisions that don't take effect for two weeks, the numbers would make the order obsolete by the time they went into effect."
It was also clarified that restaurant staff will be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine in phase 1C, the last phase before the general public has access.
For more information on resources available to restaurants, click here.
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