During the height of the COVID pandemic, the Small Business Administration (SBA), an independent agency of the United States, awarded approximately 4 million Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) totaling roughly $390 billion to restaurants and other small businesses across the country.

The loans helped many small restaurants stay open during the pandemic, but unlike other federal funding at the time, such as Paycheck Protection Program loans, EIDLs are not subject to government forgiveness, and now the added debt burden may be causing restaurants to close.

But one local food entrepreneur is hoping to help these struggling restaurants stay afloat with a campaign he calls Save Your Local , and has started a petition asking the federal government to offer EIDL forgiveness to restaurants.

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