CHICAGO and BOSTON, May 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Grubhub, a leading food-ordering and delivery marketplace, and The Greg Hill Foundation’s Restaurant Strong Fund announced the latest phase in their commitment to supporting restaurants: the Restaurant Stronger program, a new initiative to provide $5,000 grants to eligible independent restaurants. As the industry faces new challenges post-pandemic, the Restaurant Stronger grants will help restaurants fully reopen their doors, including staff hiring and training, COVID-related requirements, and inventory purchasing.

“Over the last 14 months, the support that Grubhub has given to the restaurant community has been extraordinary,” said Greg Hill, Founder of The Greg Hill Foundation. “They have ensured that the Restaurant Strong Fund was able to provide millions of dollars in grants to restaurants and their employees to help them survive. This next step will help the industry with what is hopefully a final step toward getting back to their normal.”

The Restaurant Stronger Grant program will be supported with a $2 million donation recommended from the Grubhub Community Relief Fund (GCRF), a donor-advised fund created by Grubhub to support charitable organizations helping restaurants, drivers and those in need impacted by COVID-19. This second phase of the program follows the Winterization Grants launched late last year from a $2 million donation that funded grants to nearly 200 independent restaurants. Upon being awarded one of the Winterization Grants, the team at S&G Restaurant in Chicago said, “This allowed us to keep the current employees we brought back on this summer and to give them an opportunity to earn a little during the holidays. I cannot tell you how opportune this grant was.”

“As we start to see the country open up after more than a year of uncertainty, we’re focused on supporting our restaurant partners as they are welcomed back into their communities in full,” said Kevin Kearns, senior vice president of restaurants at Grubhub. “However, we know that reopening comes with its own expenses, so it’s important for us to come together with the Restaurant Strong Fund again to help lift up the industry in this next, and hopefully final, phase of returning to our new normal post-pandemic.”

Starting May 25 through June 5, the Restaurant Strong Fund will accept grant applications from all restaurants with five or fewer locations in Atlanta, the San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley), Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, the Los Angeles area (Los Angeles, Anaheim, Long Beach), New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The application period will close on June 5 and grants will be fully distributed to restaurants by June 11. Interested restaurants can learn more about the Restaurant Stronger Grant program and the full application process at https://www.restaurantstrong.org/restaurantstronger.

About The Greg Hill Foundation’s Restaurant Strong Fund
The Greg Hill Foundation responds to the immediate needs of families that have been touched by tragedy. Since its inception in 2010, the foundation has provided over $11,000,000 in grants to families and individuals in need. With more than 1 million restaurants in the U.S. employing over 15 million people nationwide, the foundation created the Restaurant Strong Fund to be able to assist restaurant owners and employees who have been impacted by Covid-19.

About Grubhub
Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) is a leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace with the largest and most comprehensive network of restaurant partners, as well as 33 million active diners. Dedicated to connecting diners with the food they love from their favorite local restaurants, Grubhub elevates food ordering through innovative restaurant technology, easy-to-use platforms and an improved delivery experience. Grubhub features over 300,000 restaurants and is proud to partner with over 280,000 of these restaurants in over 4,000 U.S. cities. The Grubhub portfolio of brands includes Grubhub, Seamless, LevelUp, AllMenus and MenuPages.