TEXAS (WBAP/KLIF NEWS)- Starting Friday, restaurants in Texas will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity while bars are starting off at at 25%.
Restaurants are among the hardest hit industries during the pandemic according to President of the Texas Restaurant Association Dr. Emily Williams Knight, but she says even allowing 50% capacity isn’t enough.
“Losing 700,000 jobs and projected to lose 30% of our 50,000 eating a drinking establishments we know we have to do something differently,” said Dr. Knight.
It’s because of this the TRA created and sent out whats has been dubbed the Texas Restaurant Survival Plan to all elected officials in the state. This plan features eight priorities that Dr. Knight believes could save multiple chain and local restaurants.
The eight priorities listed in the survival plan:
1. Create and fund the Foodservice Industry Recovery Fund (FIRF).
2. Award a workforce development grant to deploy high-quality, COVID-19 health and sanitation
training to restaurants, bars, and their employees.
3. Continue and expand the regulatory waivers that allow restaurants to sell retail bulk items,
sealed containers of alcohol to-go with food orders, and prepared food in grocery stores.
4. Provide tax and fee relief to restaurants and bars that are negatively impacted by COVID-19 and
government-mandated closures.
5. Enact liability protections for businesses, including food service businesses, that demonstrate
reasonable, good-faith efforts to comply with COVID-19 protocols and industry-specific health
and safety guidance.
6. Prohibit landlords from evicting or foreclosing restaurants or bars for non-payment of rent or
mortgages during the COVID-19 crisis and recovery.
7. Suspend any new state or local government mandates set to come into effect for food service
businesses over the next 120 days.
8. Prohibit third-party delivery companies from charging restaurants predatory fees.
