Gov. Wolf Announces $6 Million in COVID Relief Funding for Lancaster County Restaurants

Gov. Wolf secured $145 million in pandemic relief for the hospitality industry 

 Governor Tom Wolf today joined the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), the Economic Development Company of Lancaster County, the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce, and the owners of local restaurant Silantra Asian Street Kitchen to highlight the grant funding provided to local restaurants through the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Recovery Program (CHIRP).

“Pennsylvania has made significant progress rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, but our hospitality industry still needs support,” said Gov. Wolf. “I applaud our small business owners for their courage, tenacity, and creativity during the past year and a half, and my administration stands firm in our commitment to continuing to support them as they move forward in recovery.”

Last year, Governor Wolf secured $145 million in funding supporting businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the commonwealth has worked with counties and economic development partners to quickly send assistance to the hospitality industry.

Lancaster County received $6,045,000 in CHIRP funding from the state, and 316 businesses received grants.

Counties administered the funding through one or more designated Community Economic Development Organizations (CEDO) or Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), which began processing applications from businesses in each county on March 15. All funding was distributed to businesses as of last week.

“This program provided critical support to local small businesses this spring,” said Lisa Riggs, president of Economic Development Company of Lancaster County. “Being able to deploy these resources at a local level, given our knowledge of our small business landscape here in Lancaster, helped get these funds out the door and to businesses in need efficiently.”

“We were happy to continue to work with our partners at Economic Development Company of Lancaster County in our ongoing effort to do all we can to assist all the small businesses that were impacted by the pandemic,” said Heather Valudes, vice president of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce. “We applaud the state for providing these funds and, more specifically, for targeting them to help those local businesses most in need.”

Silantra Asian Street Kitchen, located in in the City of Lancaster, received $15,000 in CHIRP funding.

“We thank Governor Wolf and his team for their swift action in rolling out the vaccine, securing funding for local small businesses and putting our health and wellbeing as their first priority,” said Sam Guo, Silantra Asian Street Kitchen owner.

For more information, visit the DCED website, and be sure to stay up-to-date with all of our agency news on FacebookTwitter, and LinkedIn.