LA City Starts Taking Applications For $800 Relief Stipends For Food Workers

This morning, the city of Los Angeles began accepting applications for a program that offers a one-time stiped of $800 to food service workers.

The city will give out 4,000 of these stipends, but individuals must apply before midnight on Friday, December 11, when the application period closes.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program — oficially named the Secure Emergency Relief for Vulnerable Employees (SERVE) initiative — last week.

To qualify, applicants must...

• live within the city of Los Angeles
• be 18 years of age or older
• have had an annual income in 2019 of $58,450 or below
• demonstrate economic hardship due to a job loss, or at least a 50% reduction in income at a food service establishment as a front or back-of-house employee

Restaurants, food stands, mobile food units and push carts as well as breweries, wineries and bars that serve food on the premises all qualify as "food service establishments."
Recipients who meet the above criteria will be chosen from a randomized list.

The move comes as restaurants, already battered by the drop in revenue from the pandemic, brace for a brutal winter without outdoor dining (at least for the next three weeks) and with new stay-at-home orders that place increased restrictions on all sorts of businesses.