Offering grants in the amount of $15,000 to $25,000 to Black-owned food businesses, both existing and startups. Prizes also include a continuing education component for grantees, with seminars led by food-industry veterans covering topics such as commercial leases, small business accounting, and employee training and retention.
Our First Two Years
In June 2020, our first initiative to create a pandemic emergency relief fund to support Black owned-restaurants in the South raised nearly $100k, and with the incredible success of that, we started looking at how we could seriously impact both our southern Black communities and restaurant industry. The Lee Initiative stepped up and helped us create an infrastructure to build a grant fund and disperse grants to applicants in a great time of need.
In April 2021 we got huge news: Heinz reached out to partner with SRRJ and the Lee Initiative. In their own words: As a brand that’s been around for over 150 years, HEINZ recognizes the profound influence food can have on culture. America’s Black-owned restaurants are cultural treasures that have been instrumental in shaping the food and flavor we enjoy today. HEINZ is partnering with nonprofit restaurant equality organization The LEE Initiative and Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice (SRRJ) in a collective effort to preserve the legacy of Black-owned restaurants through a grant program and other resources to help sustain long-term business health and success. The partnership is about more than just saving restaurants; it’s about preserving Black culture today and into the future. Through this partnership with Heinz and the Lee Initiative, we were able to make 60+ grants of up to $20,000 to Black-owned businesses across the countries.