The AAPISTRONG Restaurant Fund of the National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship (National ACE) provides grants directly to AAPI restaurant owners who have been negatively impacted by Covid-19 throughout the United States. This is a new grant opportunity for struggling AAPI restaurants. As restaurants begin to reopen or increase their capacity, unforeseen difficulties, challenges, and costs can accompany this process. National ACE looks forward to helping restaurants make this transition by providing them with additional resources. Grubhub’s $2 million donation to the National ACE AAPISTRONG Restaurant Fund will be used to support restaurant owners in their efforts to reopen or expand.
Chiling Tong, President and CEO of ACE (AAPI American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship) and Janet Alikpala, Programs and Business Development Director at ACE, took some time to speak with Sampan about this relief effort that is underway now.
There are 2.2 million AAPI business owners represented by ACE, and with the help of Grubhub, it is reaching out to those who have been adversely affected by this pandemic and accompanying racism. Those who have been hurt through loss of business or victimized by crime are particularly encouraged to apply. The terms “unforeseen difficulties, challenges and costs” include things like the numerous break-ins that have hurt businesses along Beach St. (101 Bakery, Ho Yuen Bakery), Oxford St. (Taiwan Café) and Kneeland (Irashaii). A broken door is more than just a broken door. It is a physical and visual reminder of violence.
Anti-Asian hate crime in 16 of America’s largest cities increased 145% in 2020 (while overall crime dropped by 6%) according to an analysis of official preliminary police data by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, with the first spike occurring in March and April amidst a rise in COVID cases and negative stereotyping of Asians relating to the pandemic.
StopAAPIHate.org specifically traces the impact of this type of violence, and racism on mental health. One in five Asians who have experienced racism, display racial trauma and psychological and emotional harm.
“AAPI Hate and Coronavirus represent a double pandemic for AAPI business owners, our Chamber partners are here to enhance safe and strategic restart efforts for AAPI businesses,” said Tong. The organization knows that stressors compounded by racism pose significant challenges to business owners trying to recover from pandemic losses.
ACE and their regional partners will review and evaluate all the applications. While the application period runs to August 31st or until 1,500 applications are received.
Eligibility Requirements
- The business must be Asian American/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian (AAPI) majority-owned (at least 51%)
- The business based in the United States
- The business must have been operational in 2019
- The business must be currently in operation
- The business’s primary licensed activity is “the preparation and serving of food”
- The business operates in a maximum of three locations (ineligible if operating in four or more locations)
The application is not overly long, and information is available both in Chinese and English.
Tong emphasized that even if one did not ultimately get awarded one of these grants, ACE has a wealth of resources available to AAPI business owners including a focus on business recovery, capacity building, adding that 150 webinars are available via their website.
Alikpala echoed this and noted the partnership model includes many resources, “don’t be intimidated, even if you don’t win this grant, get engaged with this business community, we want to uplift the AAPI community.”
Both added that after the applications are in, and regional partners choose the winning submissions, the awards will be announced in October.
Recent crime trend in Chinatown
At the recent Chinatown Farmer’s Market, I spoke with Officer Tommy Yung of Boston Police Dept. about the recent break-ins in Chinatown. Boston Police confirmed that it’s not only Chinatown, but Downtown Boston that has been suffering a recent uptick in break-ins.
In Chinatown, we have seen the following:
- Irashaii was broken into twice, after hours.
- Ho Yuen was robbed during business hours.
- Taiwan Cafe was broken into after hours.
- 101 Bakery was robbed, and their front door broken.
Officer Yung had three pieces of advice to business owners:
1. Link your alarm system to your phone so that if a break-in occurs you will be alerted, and the police will easily be able to find you.
2. Report all incidents, even if you think nothing will come of it. Reporting will help the police to collect the data for future discussions about resources for Chinatown.
3. If you have a cashbox or cash register visible, leave the empty drawer open, so would-be burglars can see no cash on premises. (Also consider posting a sign stating “no cash on premises after hours.”)
Mayoral Candidate Michelle Wu noted that “on walk-throughs and visits with restaurant owners, there is a sense of concern and anxiety, this very much affecting small businesses as well.” Even prior to these recent rash of break-ins, Wu heard from restaurant owners about racist slurs coming in over the line where people would call in for takeaway orders. “Large orders were placed then never picked up,” another way these AAPI hostilities show up.
Thinking back to our dim sum summit at China Pearl, the whole community turned out it was an awareness raising event and it really “created an outpouring of support following the event.” Wu added, “Every neighborhood deserves support and resources, but we do hear on these walk- throughs that Chinatown businesses are suffering.”
