As the drinking and dining industry celebrates victories like better-than-anticipated sales and the July 1 full reopening of New York City’s leisure and hospitality businesses, most bar and restaurant owners are still struggling mightily to financially recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Though they got direct relief from the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 in March, they and their supplier partners continue to lobby for the Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act of 2021, including a lesser-known provision that would cover losses for the food and beverages they had to throw away during successive lockdowns last year.
A dozen congressional representatives from both parties have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill in the last ten days, encouraging a newly formed advocacy group called the Perishable Food and Beverage Coalition, composed of 20 trade associations from the National Potato Council to the country’s three primary organizations that represent commercial beer interests.