'It's huge:' Hope Mills coffee shop one of 22 Cumberland County establishments finding relief with Small Business Resiliency Grant
HOPE MILLS, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Cumberland County grant is providing some much-needed relief to small businesses in towns and cities surrounding Fayetteville.
On Monday evening, the Board of Commissioners presented 22 local businesses with Small Business Resiliency Grant checks, including Cumberland Coffee Roasters owner Juan Guadalupe.
Guadalupe, who started his coffee making business in his garage in 2011, has been running his Hope Mills shop since 2014.
In that time, Guadalupe, like many other owners, never expected to deal with a global pandemic of this scale. "No one has had a good outcome out of this pandemic," said Guadalupe.
While foot traffic and overall sales have remained strong, Guadalupe said the price of restocking their inventory has risen, making it all the more important that he qualified for a $10,000 grant from the county.
"Our baked goods have gone up 30 percent, shipping expenses have gone up, bags, cups, things like that," Guadalupe said.
Before this local grant, Guadalupe had applied and received help from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
The SBRG, which was established in May, aims at assisting business owners with 10 or fewer full-time employees. Guadalupe said he's been able to keep his four staff-members employed and is looking to hire an additional person soon.
"I don't know what's going to happen in the future, right? The fact that I was able to get access to some of this money is allowing me to ride this storm," Guadalupe said.
In order to qualify, you need to live a county area that is not within the City of Fayetteville limits. This includes unincorporated areas of the county, as well as the towns of Eastover, Falcon, Godwin, Hope Mills, Linden, Spring Lake, Stedman and Wade, per a county release. Those who qualify can receive up to $10,000.
The SBRG is still available and will be on the table until funding is no longer available.
