Additional 88 Local Restaurants Receive $5,000 Assistance Grants Through Restaurants Care Resilience Fund

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Dec 19, 2023, 06:55 ET

This is the 2^nd Round of Restaurant Grants awarded this year with the support of SoCalGas' $1,000,000 Donation to the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund to support small businesses and drive positive change in diverse communities across Central and Southern California

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, 88 independently owned restaurants across Central and Southern California received $5,000 grants from the California Restaurant Foundation's (CRF) Restaurants Care Resilience Fund. Each restaurant receiving a grant can use the funds for equipment and technology upgrades, unforeseen hardship, employee retention bonuses and employee training, helping California's independent restaurant owners to continue their businesses during challenging times. The $2.1 million fund, supported by SoCalGas with a $1,000,000 donation, and other California utility companies, is the largest to date in terms of overall funding, individual grant sizes and grant utilization, and has provided a total of 177 grants to restaurants in SoCalGas' service area this year.

Eligibility for grants is limited to independent restaurants with no more than five locations and less than $3 million in annual revenue. Of the 88 grant recipients in SoCalGas' service area, 63% of this year's grant winners self-identified as women-owned and 88% self-identified as owned by people of color. About 67% of the grant funds are expected to be used for equipment and technology upgrades and around 33% of the $5,000 grants are designated for unforeseen hardships, employee training, and employee bonuses. To see the full list of grant recipients, please visit the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund website.

"As part of our longstanding commitment to the communities we serve, SoCalGas is proud to donate to the California Restaurant Foundation's Restaurants Care Resilience Fund for the third consecutive year," said David Barrett, SoCalGas senior vice president, general counsel, and California Restaurant Foundation board member. "The fund supports independent restaurants, which are integral to our local communities, and the foundation's grants are specifically designed to improve the livelihoods of local restaurant owners and their dedicated staff."

"SoCalGas has been an outstanding partner, providing steadfast and invaluable support for the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund since its inception in 2021. As a result, hundreds of independent restaurant owners across SoCalGas' service area have been able to fortify their businesses for the long haul," said Alycia Harshfield, Executive Director of California Restaurant Foundation. "We are excited to provide more restaurant owners with access to $5,000 grants, which can be used for various purposes such as adopting technology, upgrading equipment, facilitating employee training and retention, or overcoming unforeseen challenges."

"The collaborative efforts of SoCalGas and the California Restaurant Foundation are making a meaningful difference in the livelihoods of small business proprietors, their workforce, and the communities these restaurants enrich," said Rancho Cucamonga Mayor L. Dennis Michael. "By championing this initiative, SoCalGas is fostering the prosperity of our cherished local eateries, helping to ensure their sustained success for years to come."

"I'm thrilled to have one of the restaurants in Placentia chosen for the restaurant grant. Not only did our restaurants suffer greatly during the pandemic, but they also continue to have difficulties in the ever-changing economic environment, and the different choices people are making on how they spend their disposable income. The health and vitality of our small businesses, such as Tlaquepaque, are key to the future of Placentia. I'm grateful that SoCalGas continues to reinvest in our communities in such a tangible way," said Rhonda Shader, City of Placentia Council Member, District 1.

Since its inception, the Resilience Fund has awarded over 1,100 grants to independently owned restaurants across California. Among them, 68% self-identified as women-owned, and 83% self-identified as owned by people of color.

"For seven years, Cheesewalla has provided a new restaurant style with delicious and reliable experience for our guests. Thanks to this grant from SoCalGas and California Restaurant Foundation, we will expand our business, acquiring new fryers and broilers for our new cocktail bar's food menu," said Kadir Fakir, Co-Owner of Cheesewalla. "We are so grateful that we will be able to grow as a company, bring in more staff, and most importantly, connect with our close-knit Redlands community."

In addition to providing financial support to restaurants through its donations to the foundation, SoCalGas offers programs and services to help business customers select energy-efficient equipment. Restaurant owners can schedule a 'Try Before You Buy' demo with natural gas cooking equipment before purchasing, request a no-cost energy survey to be conducted by a utility expert, and obtain information on rebates and incentives for eligible energy efficient natural gas cooking equipment, water heating, heat recovery products, and energy-efficient upgrade installation.

SoCalGas' support of the California Restaurant Fund is part of the company's ASPIRE 2045 sustainability goals, which include a plan to invest $50 million to help drive positive change in diverse and underserved communities across five years.

For more information about the California Restaurant Foundation or their Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, please visit www.restaurantscare.org.

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About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas service to over 21 million consumers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California. Gas delivered through the company's pipelines will continue to play a key role in California's clean energy transition—providing electric grid reliability and supporting wind and solar energy deployment.

SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy company in America. In support of that mission, SoCalGas is committed to the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and delivery of energy by 2045 and to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply to core customers with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by dairy farms, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for customers. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra (NYSE: SRE), an energy infrastructure holding company based in San Diego.

For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on X (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.

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Factors, among others, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement include: decisions, investigations, inquiries, regulations, denials or revocations of permits, consents, approvals or other authorizations, renewals of franchises, and other actions by the (i) California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other governmental and regulatory bodies and (ii) U.S. and states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions therein where we do business; the success of business development efforts and construction projects, including risks in (i) completing construction projects or other transactions on schedule and budget, (ii) realizing anticipated benefits from any of these efforts if completed, and (iii) obtaining third-party consents and approvals; macroeconomic trends or other factors that could change our capital expenditure plans and their potential impact on rate base or other growth; litigation, arbitrations and other proceedings, and changes to laws and regulations, including those related to tax and trade policy; cybersecurity threats, including by state and state-sponsored actors, of ransomware or other attacks on our systems or the systems of third parties with which we conduct business, including the energy grid or other energy infrastructure, all of which continue to become more pronounced; the availability, uses, sufficiency, and cost of capital resources and our ability to borrow money on favorable terms and meet our obligations, including due to (i) actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or place those ratings on negative outlook, (ii) instability in the capital markets, or (iii) rising interest rates and inflation; failure of our counterparties to honor their contracts and commitments; the impact on affordability of our customer rates and our cost of capital and on our ability to pass through higher costs to customers due to (i) volatility in inflation, interest rates and commodity prices and (ii) the cost of the clean energy transition in California; the impact of climate and sustainability policies, laws, rules, regulations, disclosures and trends, including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas, increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory environment for California natural gas distribution companies, the risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets, and our ability to incorporate new technologies; weather, natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures, explosions, terrorism, information system outages or other events that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities or systems, cause the release of harmful materials or fires or subject us to liability for damages, fines and penalties, some of which may not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms or insurance or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable insurance; the availability of natural gas and natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the pipeline system or limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities; and other uncertainties, some of which are difficult to predict and beyond our control.

These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that the company has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on Sempra's website, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.

Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.P.I. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company or Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the CPUC.

SOURCE Southern California Gas Company