How COVID-19 Is Impacting Small Businesses Across the Food System (House Small Business Committee hearing, September 30, 2020)
Summary
Transcript of a September 30, 2020 House Small Business Committee hearing, Small Business Committee Document Number 116-096, on how COVID-19 hit small businesses across the food system. Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez and Ranking Member Steve Chabot opened. Witnesses were Jimmy Wright of Wright's Market in Opelika, Alabama for the National Grocers Association, Kimberly Gorton of Slade Gorton & Co. for the National Fisheries Institute, Rob Larew of the National Farmers Union and Collin Castore of Seventh Son Brewing for the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. Added material includes Tyson Foods fact sheets on testing and worker safety, a Craft Beverage Coalition submission and a statement of Jerry Scott.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
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“How COVID-19 Is Impacting Small Businesses Across the Food System (House Small Business Committee hearing, September 30, 2020).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/how-covid-19-is-impacting-small-businesses-across-the-food-system-hous-7a7d287586/
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HOW COVID-19 IS IMPACTING SMALL BUSINESSES
ACROSS THE FOOD SYSTEM
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
HEARING HELD
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
Small Business Committee Document Number 116–096
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
41–470 WASHINGTON : 2021
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
ABBY FINKENAUER, Iowa
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa, Vice Ranking Member
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ROSS SPANO, Florida
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
MELISSA JUNG, Majority Staff Director
JUSTIN PELLETIER, Majority Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
KEVIN FITZPATRICK, Staff Director
(II)
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CONTENTS
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Nydia Velázquez ............................................................................................. 1
Hon. Steve Chabot ................................................................................................... 3
WITNESSES
Mr. Jimmy Wright, President, Wright’s Market, Opelika, AL, testifying on
behalf of the National Grocers Association ........................................................ 4
Ms. Kimberly Gorton, President and CEO, Slade Gorton & Co., Inc., Boston,
MA, testifying on behalf of the National Fisheries Institute ........................... 6
Mr. Rob Larew, President, National Farmers Union, Washington, DC ............. 8
Mr. Collin Castore, Owner, Seventh Son Brewing, President, Ohio Craft
Brewers Association (OCBA), Columbus, OH .................................................... 9
APPENDIX
Prepared statements:
Ms. Kimberly Gorton, President and CEO, Slade Gorton & Co., Inc.,
Boston, MA, testifying on behalf of the National Fisheries Institute ...... 30
Mr. Jimmy Wright, President, Wright’s Market, Opelika, AL, testifying
on behalf of the National Grocers Association ........................................... 36
Mr. Rob Larew, President, National Farmers Union, Washington, DC ...... 45
Mr. Collin Castore, Owner, Seventh Son Brewing, President, Ohio Craft
Brewers Association (OCBA), Columbus, OH ............................................. 58
Questions and Answers for the Record:
Question from Hon. Nydia Velázquez to Ms. Kimberly Gorton and Re-
sponses from Ms. Kimberly Gorton ............................................................. 64
Additional Material for the Record:
Food Report ....................................................................................................... 66
COVID Fact Sheet ............................................................................................ 84
Statement of Jerry Scott .................................................................................. 91
Tysons Foods - A Home Grown U.S. Company .............................................. 93
Tysons Foods Fact Sheet .................................................................................. 94
Testing Procedures Fact Sheet ........................................................................ 95
Tyson Team Members Health and Safety - May 2020 .................................. 96
Craft Beverage Coalition Submission ............................................................. 98
(III)
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HOW COVID-19 IS IMPACTING SMALL
BUSINESSES ACROSS THE FOOD SYSTEM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:03 a.m., via Webex,
and in 2360 Rayburn House Office Building. Hon. Nydia Velázquez
[chairwoman of the Committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Velázquez, Finkenauer, Golden, Kim,
Davids, Evans, Schneider, Delgado, Houlahan, Craig, Chabot,
Balderson, Hern, Burchett, and Bishop.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Good morning. I call this hearing to
order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess at
any time.
I want to thank everyone, especially our witnesses for joining us
today for our Committee’s hybrid hearing. I want to make sure to
note some important requirements.
Let me begin by saying that standing House and Committee
rules and practice will continue to apply during hybrid proceedings.
All members are reminded that they are expected to adhere to
these standing rules including decorum.
During the covered period as designated by the speaker, the
Committee will operate in accordance with House Resolution 965
and the subsequent guidance from the Rules Committee in a man-
ner that respects the rights of all members to participate. House
regulations require members to be visible through a video connec-
tion throughout the proceeding, so please keep your cameras on.
Also, if you have to participate in another proceeding, please exit
this one and log back in later.
In the event a member encounters technical issues that prevent
them from being recognized for questioning, I will move to the next
available member of the same party and we will recognize that
member at the next appropriate time slot provided they have re-
turned to the proceeding.
In the event a witness loses connectivity during testimony or
questioning, I will preserve their time as staff address the technical
issue. I may need to recess the proceedings to provide time for the
witness to reconnect.
Finally, remember to remain muted until you are recognized to
minimize background noise.
Over the last few months, the outbreak of COVID-19 has led to
an unprecedented public health crisis and created a dire economic
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crisis for small firms. Three out of four businesses are experiencing
a decrease in revenue since March, and over half of small busi-
nesses are concerned about being forced to close. Small businesses
across the food supply chain system have been impacted.
As social distancing and stay-at-home orders became common-
place, the closing of commercial kitchens put restaurants and work-
ers at the frontlines of the pandemic and the ripple effects hurt
small firms across food production, processing, distribution, and re-
tail chains.
Companies that process and deliver food to commercial busi-
nesses faced abrupt order cancelations across their entire customer
base. Farmers who planted crops and tended livestock for months
based on pre-pandemic demands and markets were unable to find
processors to sell their products. Fishing boats stayed in port, proc-
essors were backlogged, and stopped bringing in materials. Grocery
stores struggled to maintain inventory as consumers rushed to buy
food for at-home consumption.
Many of the issues facing our food system and society existed
pre-pandemic. Now, because of the inability to control the spread
of the virus they are made worse. Our nation’s food banks were al-
ready under pressure—where millions of unemployed Americans
turn to feed their families. Sweeping consolidation has left us with
far fewer small farms, processors, distributors, and retailers. Large
multi-national corporations have received millions in federal sup-
port while small businesses continue to struggle to survive.
Essential farm and food system workers on the frontlines, many
of whom are immigrants and people of color, still lack basic worker
protections despite experiencing high rates of coronavirus cases.
Congress, especially members of this Committee have worked to
secure funds to help America’s small businesses survive this crisis.
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and Paycheck Protec-
tion Program (PPP) has helped millions of small businesses and
farmers to stay afloat. Along the way we have tried to improve
those programs ensuring that minority business owners and rural
business owners, who often do not have relationships with national
banks, are being served by the PPP program and amending the
EIDL program so that small American farm businesses could ac-
cess the program.
More needs to be done and that is why we are here today. Yes,
the PPP program greatly assisted five million businesses but there
are approximately 30 million small businesses in the U.S. and they
continue to face an uncertain future. In fact, the SBA reports that
in May 2020, employment in leisure, hospitality, and foodservice
was down 41 percent compared to May 2019. We are still hearing
reports of more and more farmers facing bankruptcy.
This pandemic is further highlighting an economy that was not
working for everyone. Prior to the pandemic, 40 percent of Ameri-
cans did not have $400 in the bank for an emergency, and more
than 20 percent of households experienced food insecurity.
In the past 6 months, as millions of Americans are unemployed,
Amazon, Facebook, Target, and Walmart stock prices are near all-
time highs. This is a tale of two economies. One that is working
for Wall Street while main street businesses are left behind. Many
small businesses across the food system are still in the difficult po-
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sition of figuring out how to pay rent and survive while many have
shut down forever. As we work to help assist the American people
and America’s small businesses, I look forward to hearing from our
panelists today about how Congress can address the ongoing chal-
lenges facing our food system and how we can further assist in
their recovery.
Again, I want to thank the panelists for joining us here today,
and I now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. Chabot, for his open-
ing statement.
Mr. CHABOT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Since March, our Nation’s way of life has been disrupted due to
COVID-19. America’s food system has been hit particularly hard.
Our favorite restaurants were closed. Meat options were low at gro-
cery stores and many essentials were sold out.
Today’s hearing will provide much needed context to these expe-
riences because if we better understand the why, we can better pre-
pare for the future.
Our Nation’s food system is typically geared to meet commercial
demand—restaurants, buffets, and cafeterias, for example—more
than retail demand, grocery stores. When our food demand flipped
from eating out to cooking at home, businesses along the supply
chain had to pivot to survive. Unfortunately, the system did not ad-
just quickly enough to repackage and distribute fresh produce,
milk, and meat originally prepared for commercial use.
We have all made dramatic changes to our everyday lives. Pro-
ducers along the food supply chain have quickly adopted new di-
rect-to-customer business models. New strategies and services such
as online retail or local delivery require significant investments of
time and money.
Recently, I had the opportunity to spend some time in
Waynesville back home in my district to meet with small business
owners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One business owner,
Lacie Sims, the owner of Village Family Restaurant, spoke with me
about how she utilized the Paycheck Protection Program to keep
her 25 workers employed so she could continue to serve the com-
munity, and most importantly, those folks who worked for her
could continue to support their families. She has quickly adapted
her business to accommodate pickup, delivery, and indoor dining.
At this Committee, we understand the power of our Nation’s in-
novative spirit. Now, the rest of the country can see it firsthand.
Investments being made by small businesses across the supply
chain are creating a more resilient food system for all of us.
I want to thank each of our witnesses who will be sharing their
experiences and for being part of our national recovery.
Madam Chair, thanks for holding this hearing, and I yield back.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chabot.
I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing will
proceed.
Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a statement, and
each Committee member will have 5 minutes for questions. Please
ensure that your microphone is on when you begin speaking and
that you return to mute when finished.
With that, I would like to thank our witnesses for taking time
out of their busy schedules to join us.
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Our first witness is Ms. Kimberly Gorton, the president and CEO
of Slade Gorton and Co. She is the third generation of Slade Gor-
ton, a manufacturer and primary distributor of fresh and frozen
seafood products.
Our second witness is Mr. Jimmy Wright, the president of
Wright’s Market, a family-owned independent grocery store that
has been innovative in online and mobile shopping.
Our third witness is Mr. Rob Larew, the president of National
Farmers Union, which represents family farmers and ranchers
across the country.
Finally, I would like to turn it over to the Ranking Member, Mr.
Chabot, to introduce our last witness.
Mr. CHABOT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Collin Castore is cofounder of Seventh Son Brewing which
opened in April of 2013 and its sister brewery, Antiques on High
which opened in November of 2018. He developed a passion for
American craft beer, especially Ohio craft beer while working in
restaurants and bars across Columbus. For the past 6 years, Mr.
Castore has served as the president of the Ohio Craft Brewers As-
sociation which represents more than 300 craft breweries across
the state. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Castore during the
Brewers Association Virtual Hill Climb in July. I want to thank
him for taking time away from his business to be with us here in
D.C. today. It is nice to see him and we definitely appreciate it, es-
pecially being here in person. So thank you.
I yield back.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chabot. Thank you
all for being here.
I would now like to begin by recognizing Ms. Gorton for 5 min-
utes.
Ms. Gorton, you might need to unmute.
Ms. Gorton apparently is having some technical difficulties, so
we are going to recognize Mr. Wright for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF JIMMY WRIGHT, PRESIDENT, WRIGHT’S MAR-
KET; KIMBERLY GORTON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SLADE GOR-
TON AND CO., INC.; ROB LAREW, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL
FARMERS UNION; COLLIN CASTORE, OWNER, SEVENTH SON
BREWING, PRESIDENT, OHIO CRAFT BREWERS ASSOCIATION
(OCBA)
STATEMENT OF JIMMY WRIGHT
Mr. WRIGHT. Good morning, Chairwoman Velázquez, Ranking
Member Chabot, and Committee members. I am Jimmy Wright,
the owner of Wright’s Market, an independent grocery store located
in Opelika, Alabama. It is an honor to share my experience as a
single store food retailer serving on the frontlines of the COVID-
19 pandemic.
I am testifying on behalf of the National Grocers Association, the
trade association representing the independent supermarket indus-
try.
Wright’s Market is a family-owned business. It started as a small
convenience store in 1973 and evolved to a 22,000 square foot full-
service grocery store.
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Independent grocers like me are deeply rooted in the commu-
nities we serve. Our Mayor Gary Fuller has allowed me the oppor-
tunity to join you virtually from city hall, a testament to the strong
support we receive from our community leaders.
To say 2020 has been a challenging year would be an understate-
ment. Since mid-March, independent grocers have experienced sus-
tained and historic levels of demand for grocery and household
products. We have had to adapt to large volumes of customers
stocking up weeks’ worth of food, straining the supply of key prod-
uct categories like paper, cleaning supplies, and shelf-stable prod-
ucts. Seven months into the pandemic, the supply chain continues
to cope with major product shortages.
Throughout the pandemic, we have dealt with significant oper-
ational challenges to keep up with demand while working to pro-
vide the best environment for customers and employees, including
adapting enhanced cleaning measures and using protective equip-
ment.
It has not been easy. I would like to say independent grocers are
flying a plane and building it at the same time.
But I want to pause and say thank you to all our dedicated em-
ployees who know the importance of our work to the community.
We call them our supermarket superheroes.
Although independents are resilient in overcoming operational
challenges, we have seen the competitive playing field tilted
against us and our largest competitors in the pandemic in several
ways.
The first is due to economic discrimination. Inconsistent distribu-
tion and apparent shortages of high-demand products is not just a
symptom of the current crisis; it is a direct result of a lack of anti-
trust enforcement and the dominance of power buyers in the mar-
ketplace. Dominant retailers use their size and scale to impose dis-
criminatory conditions on manufacturers and suppliers in a way
that disadvantages smaller independents which impedes our ability
to compete.
For decades, independent grocers have not had access to pricing,
promotions, and packaging deals that are provided to larger firms.
Since March, these problems have worsened as power buyers use
their market power to demand prioritization to distribution of high-
demand products. I have lost access to both popular products and
promotional pricing as I have watched my big box competitors con-
tinue to sell all products unavailable to me. This has made us
much less attractive to customers seeking one-stop shopping in the
pandemic.
The effect of buyer power is not only felt by small grocers but it
harms consumers that live in rural areas serviced by independents
with a strong enforcement of U.S. anti-trust laws ensure our ability
to compete for the benefit of all Americans.
The second competitive issue is our limited ability to sell prod-
ucts to SNAP customers online. The pandemic has accelerated
ecommerce, a trend we saw coming. Wright’s Market lost our
ecommerce service in 2016. We were fortunate to have been se-
lected for the USDA SNAP online purchasing pilot which allows
customers to use their benefits online and launched in March, just
days before national emergency declaration. Unfortunately, the
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technical barriers and cost to participate in SNAP online make it
difficult for small retailers and has also worked through an exten-
sive application and testing process. Our store remains the only
single-store operator to launch.
Meanwhile, Amazon and Walmart have expanded their SNAP
online program almost nationwide. Independents need a quicker
approval process, less technical barriers, and lower implementation
costs to compete. A level playing field is critical to preserving a
thriving and vibrant independent grocery sector.
I appreciate your attention to my concerns. Thank you for the
privilege to testify today. I look forward to answering your ques-
tions.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Wright.
Now we recognize Ms. Gorton for 5 minutes.
Ms. Gorton, you need to unmute.
STATEMENT OF KIMBERLY GORTON
Ms. GORTON. Thank you, Chairwoman Velázquez, Ranking
Member Chabot, and distinguished members of the Small Business
Committee.
I am president and CEO of Slade Gorton and Company. I am
pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the Committee
today to discuss how the seafood supply chain has been impacted
by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Slade Gorton is a third-generation family business based in Bos-
ton. We are one of America’s largest seafood processors and dis-
tributors and are proud of our record of supplying hundreds of mil-
lions of healthy and safe seafood meals to American families for
over 90 years.
More than 1.7 million Americans work in the U.S. seafood indus-
try, half a million of whom work in the middle of the supply chain,
many for small family-run companies like mine. Without us, the
fishermen’s bounty would never make it off the docks. We are the
vital link that gets seafood from our oceans to your table.
Over two-thirds of our industry’s $150 billion in annual sales
come from restaurants and other food service establishments, such
as university dining halls, hospital cafeterias, and cruise ships.
With capacity limits in place at many restaurants and the closure
of many other public eating venues, seafood companies all across
the supply chain are at serious risk of failing.
This has left our industry in unchartered waters. We have had
to deal not only with billings and lost sales, but also with the job
losses that go with such an unexpected downturn. My company
alone lost over 70 percent of its business in the immediate weeks
following the nationwide shutdown. Many struggling companies
rushed to freeze and store product. Some even began selling di-
rectly to consumers. Even with that effort, millions of dollars’
worth of fresh product that could not be sold or stored had to be
destroyed.
And when restaurants moved to curbside pickup and delivery
service, seafood did not get its fair share. Fish simply does not
travel as well as other meal options.
Even with partial reopenings, restaurant operators are faced
with increased costs at a time when many are operating at below
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breakeven capacity. All have had to find ways to simplify service
and menus and cut food costs, so it is only through ingenuity, resil-
ience, grit, and determination that companies like Slade Gorton
have been able to survive thus far.
One of the biggest issues currently affecting the seafood supply
chain is related to the large unpaid debts owed to distributors for
food that restaurants could not sell during the mandated shut-
down.
Now that foodservice establishments are open and working to re-
open, they will need to rely on their suppliers to continue to pro-
vide credit so they can restock their kitchens. We are now faced
with choosing to extend further credit at some risk or abandoning
what are in many cases decades-long customer relationships. My
company has chosen to stick by our customers because without
them we have no future.
We estimate that the seafood industry has about $2.2 billion in
outstanding bad debt in addition to the estimated $10 billion of bad
debt for the larger foodservice community. This is not something
that can be absorbed by small business. We need help to fix this.
While my company was fortunate enough to receive a PPP loan
which has certainly helped us to rehire our furloughed employees
and keep them onboard thus far, I am afraid these funds will not
be enough to sustain small businesses through what is a much
longer economic recovery than we imagined early on.
If we are going to help the economy get back on track, we need
to help small businesses survive this pandemic. Current figures
suggest that 25 percent of all restaurants in the United States
have closed forever. It is imperative that Congress pass another
stimulus bill to include expanding the scope of expenditures that
qualify for forgiveness. Allowing restaurants to use funds to pay off
their current debt so they can afford to purchase new food and sup-
plies and rehire staff will go a long way toward preventing addi-
tional business failures.
Additionally, restaurants, retailers, and all businesses seafood
value chain are now faced with increased costs associated with fre-
quent sanitizing, new employee training regimens, retrofitting
processing lines, retail spaces, and restaurant dining rooms and
providing PPE for employees. These increased yet necessary oper-
ational costs are prohibitive as we struggle to adapt.
I urge Congress to consider Federal grants or tax credits to help
pay for these critical safety measures. Ultimately, jumpstarting the
economy requires continued support for those businesses who drive
80 percent of our GDP, small businesses.
The seafood supply chain is a complex one but one that helps en-
sure every American has access to this healthy and sustainable
protein. We need our government to recognize the seafood commu-
nity as the broad and diverse system we are. I implore you to act
now in support of small business, seafood businesses, and our in-
dustry’s lifeblood, restaurants. Food is the foundation of health and
well-being and is at the center of happiness, human connection,
and a vibrant Nation. Our families have fed your families for gen-
eration. Our families now need you.
Thank you for allowing me to discuss the impact of COVID-19.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you, Ms. Gordon.
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Now we recognize Mr. Larew for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF ROB LAREW
Mr. LAREW. Good morning. Thank you, Chairwoman Velázquez,
Ranking Member Chabot, and members of the Committee. And
thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
As mentioned, I am Rob Larew, and I serve as president of the
National Farmers Union. We work to ensure that farm families
and their communities are respected, valued, and enjoy economic
prosperity and social justice. Thank you for addressing the chal-
lenges that farmer and the food system face during this time of cri-
sis and public health in the economy and in our society.
In recent decades, our members have been hard hit by corporate
consolidation among companies who sell inputs to farmers and
among companies who purchase what farmers produce. This
mounting market concentration has been compounded by low crop
prices, a global trade war, and increasingly frequent severe weath-
er events.
Since 2012, annual net returns for farmers have trended down-
ward for major row crops due to rising product costs and declining
prices for commodities. As the pandemic took hold, consumer de-
mand shifted dramatically with the closure of restaurants, schools,
and other institutions. Processing facilities, particularly in the
meat sector, were shut down due to outbreaks among workers. At
least 370 meat packing plants or one-third of the national total ex-
perienced COVID-19 outbreaks as of last week. There were nearly
43,000 cases in the meat packing sector alone.
Supply chains were interrupted and many farmers suffered fi-
nancial struggles while the price of food for consumers increased.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture prices received by farmers
index showed a 6 percent decrease from April through July 2020
as compared to the same period in 2019. Farmers losses have not
been passed on to consumers who instead are paying more for food.
So far in 2020, the consumer price index for food is 3 percent high-
er than 2019.
As supply chains adjusted to new consumer demand patterns and
processing facilities have largely reopened, problems linger for the
farm and food system. The price of corn has been severely affected
following demand for ethanol as 40 percent of corn grown in the
U.S. is used for biofuel production.
Stay-at-home orders kept Americans off the road and fuel con-
sumption dropped sharply costing the ethanol industry $10 million
in sales. To make matters worse, EPA’s broad allowance of small
refinery exemptions and an unwillingness to permit higher blends
of ethanol have further eroded corn prices.
While the disruptions caused by the pandemic are unprece-
dented, many of the problems we face are nothing new. The pan-
demic revealed the fragility underneath our food and farm systems.
As farmers, we are optimists and urge policymakers to apply les-
sons learned this year to address the long-term issues.
In order to be more resilient, we need to build a robust regional
food infrastructure. A good start would be stronger anti-trust en-
forcement from Federal agencies, like the Department of Justice,
the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Department of Agri-
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culture. Farmers and ranchers need more choices for marketing
their crops and livestock. To do this, we need to spur development
of small and mid-size processing plants. In the meat industry, an
important step in that direction would be the RAMP-UP Act, which
was included in the recently revised HEROES Act.
Earlier this year, this Committee helped farm businesses gain
access to Small Business Administration Programs. A lingering
barrier to access PPP is the requirement to show positive net in-
come because more than half of farms have negative income in re-
cent years. And if you would support H.R. 7175, the Paycheck Pro-
tection for Producers Act which would allow farmers with net nega-
tive income in 2019 to qualify for the program using gross income
instead.
Lastly, pandemic aid efforts have helped farmers withstand the
current crisis but future efforts should focus on policy changes to
address the causes rather than simply the symptoms of a broken
farm economy. One way to do this is through a cost-effective supply
management system for farm commodities that would balance pro-
duction with consumer demand.
Thank you for this opportunity to address the Committee and I
welcome your questions.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Larew.
Now we recognize Mr. Castore for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF COLLIN CASTORE
Mr. CASTORE. Chairwoman Velázquez, Ranking Member
Chabot, and members of the Committee, thank you for your state-
ments to begin this, and thank you for asking me here to testify
today.
My name is Collin Castore, and I am founder of Seventh Son
Brewing Company and Antiques on High located in Columbus,
Ohio. I also serve as board president of the Ohio Craft Brewers As-
sociation, representing 351 breweries in the Buckeye state.
Seventh Son has been producing beer since 2013. In the past 7
years, we have watched our business grow to two locations, around
$5 million in sales, and around 70 employees.
I have always been proud of the fact that for every new job cre-
ated in beer there are 24 jobs generated in the industries that help
us to brew and sell our beer.
Unfortunately, this goes both ways. According to a recent report
by the economic firm John Dunham and Associates, 651,000 jobs
supported by the U.S. beer industry will be lost by the end of the
year due to COVID-19.
Prior to the coronavirus changing our world, Seventh Son sold
our beer through taprooms, restaurants, bars, and retailers
throughout Ohio. The uncertainty over the past 6 months has made
it extremely difficult to continue to run this business. Summer is
the busiest time for most breweries and in Ohio we are limited to
around 40 percent of our normal capacity and have had a 10 p.m.
curfew imposed since May on alcohol sales. Some states have
guidelines that have actually made it impossible to operate on-
premise tasting rooms and many would welcome Federal guidance
and consistency to help with these issues.
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The majority of breweries in the United States make the major-
ity of their revenue from taprooms and tasting room sales. Esti-
mates by the Brewers Association suggest that small brewers have
seen on-premise sales revenues go down 30 percent since March.
Most breweries get their wholesale revenue from on-premise
sales to restaurants, bars, and concern venues which have been se-
verely restricted over the past 6 months. These outlets sold nearly
20 percent of the total U.S. beer volume annually. Their closures
resulted in an estimated $900 million worth of beer that will need
to be destroyed.
Data from September shows draft sales still around one-third
lower than this point last year.
At Seventh Son, we have our own canning line and some existing
relationships that helped us to absorb most of this on-premise vol-
ume loss. On March 16th, we began a home delivery business and
carryout sales model out of our shuttered tap rooms. These meas-
ures were a lifeline but our head is very much still barely above
water.
We completed a $5 million expansion in 2018 and have a wonder-
ful facility but also the debt to go with it. When we sell a can of
beer to our distributor, we get $5 less than when we sell that same
can of beer out of our taproom. We built our expansion for future
wholesale growth but taproom revenue is absolutely essential to
support it.
I am sure you have seen the headlines referencing increased al-
cohol sales. Those increases must be offset against the massive de-
cline in sales at on-premise channels. The size of the overall pie
has not shifted even as the individual slices appear different.
Even with those increases that we have seen in off-premise, the
brewing industry is expected to lose $22 billion in 2020. In addi-
tion, the increased demand for cans, both in and outside of our in-
dustry, has caused an aluminum can shortage in the U.S.
Another issue that we have seen during the pandemic is that
many ethanol plants that captured commercial CO2 were taken off-
line. The production partially has ramped back up. Our industry
still sees signs of a shortage caused by natural disasters and unex-
pected closures. For our industry to survive, breweries need cer-
tainty and we need financial assistance.
Please pass the bipartisan Craft Beverage Modernization Tax Re-
form Act and make the current Federal excise tax rates permanent.
If the current tax rates expire, my Federal excise tax rates will go
up 100 percent starting in January. This would cost me $25,000
which essentially costs me an employee.
We appreciate Congress’s swift action at the beginning of the
pandemic with the CARES Act. It resulted in thousands of brew-
eries receiving money from the Payroll Protection Program. I would
very likely not be here had it not been for the $359,000 that we
received. The program was not perfect but we can ensure its suc-
cess by forgiving all of the PPP loans of less than $150,000 to small
business. Adding additional funds to this program and allowing
businesses that can show revenue losses to apply for another loan.
Give us the ability to write off the funds that were used as busi-
ness expenses as well, and allow 501(c)6s, like the Ohio Craft
Brewers Association, the ability to apply for PPP loans. Our guild
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has helped us more than double the number of breweries in Ohio
in the past 5 years helping to create more than 21,000 jobs.
In conclusion, I feel strongly that Seventh Son needs another
round of PPP to survive the impacts of COVID-19, but please also
consider passing the Restaurants Act and Restart Act, both of
which would provide small breweries with grants rather than debt
and allow us more flexibility in how we use those funds.
We also encourage Congress to consider a credit for
unmerchantable goods that had to be destroyed due to supply chain
interruptions caused by the virus.
For the past decade, the United States brewing industry has
been a success story in American manufacturing and job creation.
We need your help to weather this pandemic and continue to grow
and thrive.
Thank you very much for your time.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Castore. We appre-
ciate all you have shared with us.
Let me begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
I would like to start off with my first question to Mr. Wright.
The Census just reported that one in 10 adults do not have
enough food to eat, and 27 percent of households with children are
food insecure. As we strive to ensure that hungry people have ac-
cess to food during this pandemic, why are there so few small re-
tailers approved by the administration for online SNAP purchases?
Mr. WRIGHT. We appreciate the opportunity to be included in
that pilot. I think there are several things that make that a chal-
lenge for smaller retailers. Certainly, one is the technical aspect of
navigating that to be able to get set up. From a small retailer
standpoint there are costs with setting the system up. There are
costs to processing part of that overall assistance that are needed
from a rate cutter to understand a program. We have already expe-
rienced in our launch, and we launched one week before the pan-
demic buying started, we recognize in our launch already that
there is an education process we need to go through to be able to
inform the customers of how to use the program. We would advo-
cate for the SNAP Online Options Act. I believe it is H.R. 7535, to
be able to allow retailers to expand online options. In our own area
what we would have is the ability to deliver to rural areas around
us. So it is a technical process to work through, an application
process to work through. We were very fortunate to have a——
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Okay. Mr. Wright, time is running
out and I need to ask another question. Thank you so much for
your answer.
Mr. Larew, I recently introduced the Mobilizing Restaurants in
America Act so that SNAP recipients can gain access to food and
while also supporting struggling restaurants. How important is up-
dating and funding SNAP and other nutrition programs like the
Double Up Bucks Program to farmers, farm workers, and small
businesses across rural America?
Mr. LAREW. Oh, it is absolutely essential, and we appreciate
your leadership in this area. SNAP remains the most efficient way
to address food insecurity out there. So as we look at ways to fur-
ther bring resilience in that delivery, we have certainly seen a lot
of hiccups with the pandemic, ways to pivot, if you will, to make
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sure that SNAP and ultimately good quality food is available from
farmers and connect that to consumers including and especially
those in food insecurity. So, it is vital. And all of the programs
along with it, you have mentioned the Double Up Bucks, et cetera,
and USDA programs to connect farmers to the consumers, all of
those issues are critically important.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you.
Ms. Gorton, restaurants and small firms across the supply chain
are continuing to struggle and that has resulted in issues for food
processors and distributors. PPP assisted many in your industry,
including yourself. What other steps do you recommend that Con-
gress and the Small Business Administration take so that we could
address the challenges that you are still facing?
Ms. Gorton, you need to unmute yourself.
Ms. GORTON. Thank you, Chairwoman.
So I think there are several things that we would ask respect-
fully that Congress address. I think, first and foremost, that USDA
must allow seafood in their programs. Thus far, seafood has not
been included in all of their programs. It is an important protein
and we would ask for it to be included.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Ms. Gorton, we are having difficul-
ties hearing what you are saying, so I will ask that maybe you
could submit an answer to the Committee on that question.
Ms. GORTON. Certainly. Certainly.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you.
Mr. Wright, since the outbreak of the pandemic, stores around
the country have struggled to stay stocked with in-demand prod-
ucts. What role has increased corporate consolidation and market
control played in your ability to source and sell products?
Mr. WRIGHT. We have seen an increase in the larger players
being able to access products that we are not able to get, especially
some of the key products such as comfort food items such as pasta
and rice and beans and some of those things. Paper products,
cleaning supplies. All those things have been very difficult for us
to source due to such power from the larger retailers. I can walk
in those stores and see those products on the shelf that I am not
able to source.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Do you feel that there is any role or
impact that corporate consolidation and market control has to do
with that?
Mr. WRIGHT. Yes, ma’am. As retail consolidation continues on
the retail side, we continue to see larger big box retailers have
more and more power and being able to put pressure on all the
manufacturers that they will get product to the point of actually
penalizing some of these suppliers if they do not get the bill rate
that they are looking for. Again, that is taking product away from
the smaller retailers, including grocers.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you. My time has expired.
Now we recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Chabot.
Mr. CHABOT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Castore, I will begin with you.
You had mentioned that it is much more profitable in the tap-
room than what you sell, you make per unit a lot more there, obvi-
ously. And then you mentioned the 10 p.m. curfew that we have
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in Ohio, that you have to cut off at 10 p.m. has had a pretty dra-
matic impact on your sales. My district, we are down at the bottom
of the state. You are Columbus, I think, and I am Cincinnati, so
we have Kentucky right across the Ohio River there. And so the
10 o’clock, what we have heard and it has been on the news and
written about, and I know the businesses are feeling this, you
know, they can just leave Ohio and go over into Kentucky and take
their business over there.
How have you been affected up in Columbus on the 10 p.m. cur-
few, and do you have any recommendations on that perhaps? Not
that we can do that here but the states obviously make that on a
state-by-state basis, that determination.
Mr. CASTORE. Sure. My own experience with the curfew, it is
definitely hurting our sales. Definitely not helping our sales. We do
not have Kentucky across the river but we do have Ohio State Uni-
versity, and we are a relatively large city, a million and a half peo-
ple. So what we are seeing is people go out until 10 p.m. and then
they just go to house parties, gatherings where they might not be
socially distanced whereas at responsible restaurants and bars
across Ohio we are actually practicing social distancing, passing
out masks, doing all these things. And ironically, I feel like people
are a lot safer going out sometimes than going to these more like
private gatherings.
Mr. CHABOT. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Ms. Gorton, I am going to go to you next, although I think you
and I purchased our wi-fi at the same place because when we are
at my home doing these things I had that breaking up a lot appar-
ently but I am going to try it.
You mentioned, you indicated that you lost over 70 percent of
your business in the weeks following the nationwide shutdowns.
How did you adjust your business operations to try to survive dur-
ing that time?
Ms. GORTON. Thank you. Hopefully, you can hear me now.
So, well, as with any businesses, you know, the first week really
affects the supply by slowing down the flow of goods in our supply
chain. Us and other companies, we had to freeze some of our fresh
product. We had to put product in cold storage. Which affected the
cash flow. We worked very hard with customers to make sure that
we could continue to support their operational demands, working
closely with our suppliers to be able to help them.
And first and foremost, our primary focus was keeping our em-
ployees safe, and that really required in our plans making sure
that we implemented additional measures. We invested in new
technology. We have invested in a tremendous amount in PPE and
in training to make sure that our workers are safe, we could con-
tinue to process seafood. We are very fortunate in that we have had
no disruption in our supply chain during this time.
I do understand though that a number of other seafood proc-
essors have had disruption in their business. I think particularly
some of the processors in Alaska who have a tremendous amount
of seasonal workers and had to put them up in hotels for 14 quar-
antine days.
Mr. CHABOT. Thank you. Thank you.
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I am going to try to get one more question in. I have a little over
a minute to go.
Mr. Wright, I will go to you next.
How have you adjusted your inventory as we continue to deal
with the coronavirus restrictions? Has that changed over time? You
know, how have you handled that to try to stay maybe not profit-
able but, you know, to survive?
Mr. WRIGHT. From the supply side we have just had to expand
on the items that we could source and our suppliers have had to
look for sources we traditionally would not, you know, be buying
product from. In our own case, we actually, with all the toilet paper
shortages that were there, we actually ended up sourcing some toi-
let paper from a factory in Mexico in order to be able to have some
product to sell. A lot of brands and major selling items we cannot
get back to the large power buyers but if there is a reasonable item
or something we were able to supply was fresh meat. That was the
one that really was critical to us because it is such a large portion
of our business. And again, that is evident if consolidation in that
industry and the challenges that were made on the retailers side
when the pandemic hit and so many of those places closed.
Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much.
Madam Chair, my time has expired. I yield back.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman yields back.
Now we recognize the gentlelady from Iowa, Ms. Finkenauer,
Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agri-
culture, Trade, and Entrepreneurship.
Ms. FINKENAUER. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you
for holding this hearing today. Obviously, this is a huge issue that
we are still dealing with in the middle of this pandemic, and it is
something that has hit close to home in my district in particular.
So my question is to Mr. Larew. So in Iowa, workers in my state
and in my district lost their lives as a result of COVID-19 out-
breaks in large meat processing plants. Not only obviously was this
devastating for the communities and the families where these proc-
essors are among the biggest employers, it created disastrous con-
sequences for our food supply chain, especially for our livestock and
poultry producers.
I recently actually cosponsored something you talked about, the
RAMP-UP Act, which would obviously create more competition into
the processing sector. So how do you think, and can you expand
upon this, these types of investments in our small plants could help
us prevent some of the issues we saw with worker safety and then
depopulation in Iowa?
Mr. LAREW. Yes, absolutely. And it is an important issue that
you bring up because really what we are talking about here is tak-
ing ourselves from what is a very concentrated, arguably very effi-
cient to some, but one that really has no resilience built into it.
And the RAMP-UP Act that you mentioned is an important step in
shifting ourselves from a very concentrated marketplace to one that
is much more local and regional based, building in more systems
for options for producers help take a lot of the stress out. It also
would ensure much more focus on worker safety and support. So
again, taking ourselves away from a very efficient-driven system
that is so concentrated and has so many workers at all once into
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something that creates much more opportunity for rural commu-
nities I think is a huge step forward.
Ms. FINKENAUER. Great. And you know, I obviously agree but
I also want to touch even further here on the issue of competition.
I have heard real issues with price transparency from our cattle-
men and also helped introduce legislation to require packers to buy
at least half their slaughter on the spot market. Thinking back to
the high prices, obviously, of beef and what we have seen during
this pandemic, at least in the grocery stores but does not always
come back to our producers, how could more transparency help our
cattlemen and make our supply chain more resilient?
Mr. LAREW. You touch on another key piece of this. Right? Not
only do we have a huge concentration, we have four beef companies
controlling over 80 percent of the beef market. We have just 50
meat plants out there that manage 98 percent of the processing. It
is an incredible concentration.
But the other piece of this is that we do not have a true cash
market price out there. And so for these small business owners,
these independent family farmers and ranchers, they have no way
to truly understand where the market is. There are a slew of law-
suits going on right now related to price manipulation in the meat
industry, and I think this is another key component of that. So
measures such as the one you referenced and that our members are
actively advocating for up on Capitol Hill would be an important
piece of reestablishing a true operating market and certainly a key
piece of that is price discovery. And so more information will be
better.
Ms. FINKENAUER. Well, thank you, Mr. Larew. And I know,
you know, obviously, these issues have always been important;
right? But now going through this pandemic, and I have seen this
now through many different issues, whether it is access to
broadband and needs for that, going through a pandemic these
issues are really heightened and under scored in a number of ways
and these are just things we have got to get right and we have got
to get right fast because especially when it comes to our supply
chain, when it comes to making sure of the flow, we just cannot
take for granted anything and thank you for your testimony today
as well.
Mr. LAREW. Thank you.
Ms. FINKENAUER. And with that I yield back, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentlelady yields back.
Now we recognize Mr. Balderson from Ohio, Ranking Member of
the Subcommittee on Innovation and Workforce Development for 5
minutes.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you, Madam Chair, and Mr. Castore,
thank you for being here. I am one of the three representatives
along with Congressman Stivers and Congresswoman Beatty that
represent Central Ohio, so it is great to see you here, and I know
your establishment. So thank you.
In your testimony you mentioned three major efforts Congress
needs to undertake in order to help small business brewers such
as yourself. These three issues being passage of H.R. 1175, the
Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act; specific adjust-
ments to PPP and other SBA loan programs; and a tax credit for
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perishable goods that had to be destroyed due to supply chain dis-
ruptions.
As a cosponsor of H.R. 1175, the Craft Beverage Modernization
and Tax Reform Act, I am hopeful we can pass this bill and provide
you with this tax relief.
I would like to ask you about your comment about a tax credit
for perishable goods. How did your business account for the loss of
perishable goods prior to COVID?
Mr. CASTORE. Thank you. Prior to COVID, we did not have a
lot of loss from perishable goods. We would, of course, we have
made a lot of different styles of beer every now and again. Some-
thing would not work quite right. It is still a commodity. It is a
perishable good in general. But we did not run into the kind of vol-
ume and the kind of circumstance that precipitated just having to
immediately cut off sales. And then in our case we were able to re-
package some as cans but we still just dumped beer. I have never
seen anything like it. And it is not just us. It is restaurants dump-
ing beer. It is wholesalers dumping beer. It is the actual breweries
dumping beer. But this is good, when people mistreat beer and put
it in their car or something, you know, think of it like milk. It actu-
ally has an expiation date. It goes bad. And a lot of beer went bad.
Mr. BALDERSON. I agree. I talked to a couple friends of mine
in my home county that also do the same thing and we talked
about that.
I would like to ask you about your comment about a tax credit
for perishables. How would this tax credit differ from existing prac-
tice?
Mr. CASTORE. I would probably not be the best person to com-
ment on the mechanics of it. But it seems more like this was a one-
time circumstance. This was a once in a lifetime kind of experience
that we have been through, so some type of tax credit, some type
of structure, not a permanent structure like the Craft Beverage
Modernization. We would like that to be permanent. In terms of
practice, we would just like this to be a one time help us out with
what we need.
Mr. BALDERSON. Agree. Thank you very much, and again,
thank you for being here today.
Mr. CASTORE. Thank you.
Mr. BALDERSON. My next question is for Mr. Wright. I would
be interested to hear your perspective on this matter. How did your
independent grocery store account for food loss prior to the virus?
Mr. WRIGHT. Prior to the virus we worked very hard every day
to control the amount of waste and shrink that we have. Anything
that we have that we can donate to food banks and such as that
we do those things. So we just try to manage that supply chain
very well and make sure we offer the freshest product and do not
have a tremendous amount of loss that we end up having to pass
on through our pricing somewhere.
Mr. BALDERSON. Thank you.
Would you be able to quantify the financial cost your business
has had to incur because of disruptions in the food supply chain?
Mr. WRIGHT. For us it was a lot of overtime. Certainly as busi-
ness ramped up we had a tremendous amount of overtime for em-
ployees. We did some additional bonuses. Investments that we
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made in plexiglass dividers at the registers, PPP equipment and all
those things. Also, for us it was a loss of margin in a lot of places
as we tried our very best not to raise prices. And this goes back
to the situation with meat. We held our prices down as low as we
possibly could to cover our cost and be able to try to give the cus-
tomer the best price we could. Even though things went up, we
made very, very little margin on some of those items. So we had
loss of margin, increased expense in operating the store, and in-
vestments also in the equipment in the facility to be able to provide
a safe shopping environment for the customer.
Mr. BALDERSON. Okay, thank you.
I am going to try to get this in. I might run out of time so I will
cut you off. But finally, I introduced legislation to provide small
businesses with up to $25,000 in tax credits for the purchase and
replacement of PPE. How significantly would this help your busi-
ness?
And I am sorry, sir, but we are out of time. We will follow up
with you on that.
I yield back, Madam Chair.
Mr. WRIGHT. Thank you.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman’s time has expired.
The gentlelady, Ms. Davids, from Kansas is recognized for 5 min-
utes.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you, Chairwoman. And thank you to you
and Ranking Member Chabot for holding this hearing today. I am
really glad we are focusing on the massive impact we have seen
from the pandemic, the devastating impact really on our food sys-
tem and especially on our restaurants.
You know, one of the things I get to do as the 3rd District rep-
resentative is talk up Kansas and the Kansas City metro area. For
folks who do not know, we cannot talk about our KC region without
talking about barbeque. And you know, this is everything from
Joe’s KC to John’s Barbeque and Slaps and so many others that
are really not just part of the culture of the place but are huge eco-
nomic drivers. And they are often small businesses. And we know
restaurants across the country are facing enormous challenges and
we have seen so many inspiring examples of folks who are stepping
up and doing everything they can.
I have been proud to be a cosponsor of the Restaurants Act which
would create a new grant program for the restaurant industry, and
right now we are seeing the far-reaching impacts. And that is on
the restaurants and the suppliers.
Ms. Gorton, I wanted to ask you first, in your testimony you had
mentioned the difficult situation that you are facing as a supplier
as your customers try to reopen and need additional credit. Could
you talk a little bit on that position that you are in, that your cus-
tomers are in, and how you have been addressing it?
Ms. GORTON. Yes. I am going to try to speak on my phone.
Hopefully this is more clear. We are having a bad storm here in
Boston. I think it is affecting us.
I think it is really just a matter of we have had to extend credit
terms, and the way we have worked it with our customers is that
as they ramped back up they are now paying us for the products
that they are buying now and what we are working with them on
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is to put in place payment plans for them to help pay us back for
the product that they purchased just prior to the shutdown. In
some cases that is working well. In other cases it is not. I think
that if Congress is not able to pass more relief and a stimulus for
restaurants in particular, as the original PPP funds run out we are
going to start to see a lot more failures which will have a domino
effect on companies in the food industry and specifically the sea-
food industry. I think as I mentioned, 70 percent of seafood is con-
sumed outside the home, and so as restaurants fail, we, as an in-
dustry, have a disproportionate effect to other industries.
Ms. DAVIDS. Yeah. So you started to get into legislation that we
have passed. I am curious, what are your thoughts about how we
as legislators can ensure that supply chains supporting restaurants
are also supported during this time?
Ms. GORTON. That restaurants are supported? Well, I think
that the legislature——
Ms. DAVIDS. And the suppliers.
Ms. GORTON. And the suppliers. Well, I think one of the key
things that you could do is to ensure that the PPP funds that are
available can be used for covering bad debts. That would go a long
way towards helping people in our supply chain. Right now the
funds are primarily used to keep people employed and to pay util-
ity and rent costs. However, our biggest challenges come from the
risk that we have associated with bad debt. So if the PPP funds
could be extended to include restaurants’ ability to use those funds
to pay off their bad debt that would certainly help companies like
mine immeasurably.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you. And thanks for taking the time to tes-
tify here today.
I was hoping to switch gears really quickly.
Mr. Wright and Mr. Larew, I wanted to know if you have some
ideas about improving food assistance programs during this time.
I am sure you all after seeing everything have some thoughts on
that.
Mr. WRIGHT. In my case, just continuing to have a strong SNAP
program would be a key to that. Also, being able for independents
to offer online SNAP would be a tremendous asset for the cus-
tomers that either cannot get to the store or choose not to come to
the store during the pandemic. So a strong SNAP program and an
ability to go online for everyone to be able to offer that. Right now,
only Amazon and Walmart are able to offer that. Myself and one
other operator, regional operator in New York/New Jersey. So we
would appreciate the opportunity to be able to do that.
Mr. LAREW. And I would simply echo those thoughts. And from
the farmer perspective, we need strong access to SNAP and food
assistance that is critically important for all of us.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you. And thank you for your time, and I
yield back.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentlelady’s time has expired.
The gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Hern, Ranking Member of
the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access is
recognized.
Mr. HERN. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman Velázquez, Ranking
Member Chabot, and our witnesses for testifying today.
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As many of you know, I have been a small business owner in the
restaurant industry for over 35 years. As a franchisee for the
McDonald’s Corporation, I built an extensive knowledge of supply
chain operations. Through this experience, I have learned that res-
taurants rely heavily on their supply chain operations where suc-
cess is extremely dependent on the efficiency of their wholesalers,
distributors, and food supply.
Unfortunately, as our witnesses have duly noted in their written
testimonies, COVID-19 has taken a severe toll on each of these
services. Even with the SBA and USDA’s government assistance
programs, farmers and food suppliers were still facing excess sup-
ply issues where many of their perishable products were going to
waste.
On this Committee, my colleagues often hear me discuss my
business experiences with restaurants, but what many not know is
that one of my first ventures was farming. I built and ran a suc-
cessful hog farming operation and also formerly worked on numer-
ous poultry farms for Tyson Foods. Because of a background within
numerous aspects of the supply chain ranging from the farm to the
storefront, I can attest to the obstacles our witnesses have brought
forward.
As one of our witnesses mentioned in her testimony, farmers are
having to dump produce and euthanize their livestock, which is
devastating impacts on their bottom lines. These types of issues
also have a trickle effect. When farmers struggle, our wholesalers,
distributors, restaurants, and small businesses struggle. This bur-
den is then passed on to the American consumer who might run
into the issues of accessing the food supply and certainly will have
an impact on their pricing.
Going forward, Congress must ensure that we take the appro-
priate actions to support the food supply system and thereby pro-
vide for our local communities during this unprecedented time.
As many of you know, at the brink of COVID-19, Congress
worked swiftly to pass emergency relief legislation. One of those
provisions of this relief expanded unemployment insurance giving
people the ability to draw unemployment and receive an additional
$600 per week. While well intentioned, this policy created undue
burdens for many businesses deemed essential. These payments
were not adjusted for cost of living which caused employees to re-
frain from working as some made more from government benefits
than they did their actual job.
Mr. Wright, you touched on this issue in your written testimony.
Could you please elaborate on the issues you face regarding staff-
ing?
Mr. WRIGHT. Certainly. In the first wave of pandemic we had
2 weeks that were the largest volume weeks that we have ever had
and also I think across the industry. As we began to reach out into
the communities in looking for additional employees, that was a
challenge. We were very fortunate in our area to have some college
students that were essentially stuck at school with classes being
canceled. They came in and kind of saved us so to speak. But as
we reach through our traditional channels, we had very little suc-
cess on finding people.
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Certainly, I agree with your remarks, Congressman, that there
was an incentive as a lot of people were making more off of unem-
ployment than they were working. I also agree that there is some
kind of cost of living analysis or metric put into the VAT to adjust
that. That has changed now for us in the last few weeks. Just on
Saturday this week I reached out through social media with an ad
for employees and very quickly by the end of the day had 16 appli-
cants. So it was a challenge in the beginning but we are seeing im-
provement on the back side. A real struggle on the supply side for
people loading trucks and warehouse workers and all retailers
across the country.
Mr. HERN. Thank you, Mr. Wright.
I want to move on to another question. There has been a lot of
talk about lines of credit, grant program, forgiveness of loans. As
many of you are very familiar because you have addressed this, al-
luded to it, on the floor we have an opportunity to vote on H.R.
8265 that the Ranking Member has put forward for us to try to get
on the floor for helping our small businesses survive. It is $138 bil-
lion of money left over from the PPP program. Just a simple yes
or no, I will start with you, Mr. Wright, would you support that if
you had the opportunity? Would you encourage your congressman
or congresswoman to support that, the extension of the $138 bil-
lion, very targeted 25 percent down in sales and also it would go
through the end of the year? Would you have your congressman
support that, yes or no?
Mr. WRIGHT. Certain would want to assist all small businesses
out there. You know, we have seen a dramatic impact in our com-
munities.
Mr. HERN. So Mr. Wright, I am going to take that as a yes. I
have got 10 seconds left.
Mr. WRIGHT. Yes. Yes.
Mr. HERN. I want to get to Ms. Gorton.
Mr. WRIGHT. I am sorry.
Mr. HERN. Yeah, Ms.——
Ms. GORTON. Yes, hi, I am sorry. Could you repeat the ques-
tion? We are having a bad storm here.
Mr. HERN. No, I am sorry. I do not have time.
Madam Chair, I yield back.
Ms. GORTON. Sorry.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman yields back.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Evans, is recognized for
5 minutes.
Mr. EVANS. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Gorton, there is a good business in Philadelphia that is simi-
lar to yours, Samuels and Son Seafood Company, which is a sea-
food supplier to hotels, restaurants, and casinos. Like yours, his
business dropped 75 percent in the span of a few weeks leaving it
with unused products and debt that would not be affordable. With
nearly two-thirds of fish being consumed outside of the home that
made businesses like yours adapt to survive. What assistance do
you need from Congress to help your business adapt?
Ms. GORTON. Thank you. Hopefully you can hear me okay. And
yes, Samuels and Son is a very well-run company. They are a cus-
tomer of ours.
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What needs to happen to make sure that we get the support, we
need a few things. First, that Congress includes processors and dis-
tributors within the scope of any relief that you provide. And agen-
cies also at USDA would do likewise in formulating relief programs
for the food industry.
Second, despite the fact that you have allocated $300 million to
the seafood industry through NOAA, they have been very slow to
get the money to the intended recipients. Congress passed the
CARES Act at the end of March. It took till May for NOAA to even
announce how they would distribute the funds, and funds are still
trickling in. We expect to not maybe even be able to receive them
until the end of the year.
And then finally, I think that additional funds being allotted to
the seafood industry in a nonstimulus act, if you could establish a
firm deadline for NOAA to do that and insist that the agency meet
those deadlines for any additional funds, that would go a long way
towards helping processors and distributors like Samuels and Son
and my company.
Mr. EVANS. Mr. Wright, I was pleased to see that you men-
tioned the bill that I co-authored with GT Thompson, the CHAIN
Act which would provide protection for frontline food workers. Dur-
ing this pandemic, food workers have been deemed essential, yet
many of them have not been getting essential worker wages they
deserve.
Tell me why you support this bill.
Mr. WRIGHT. Certainly, our employees that have stuck in there
and assisted our customers and ran our stores during the pan-
demic, we have great respect for and we refer to them as super-
market superheroes. Anything that we can do to award those peo-
ple for that commitment to our communities, to our customers in
the most important part of our economy which is the food chain,
especially during this difficult time would be greatly appreciated.
I think it would be a great act, and I appreciate your leadership
on that.
Mr. EVANS. Last question for Mr. Larew.
Mr. Larew, Philadelphia has over 24 percent poverty which
means that a significant portion of the city residents experience
food insecurity. Programs like the Farmer Food Box are instru-
mental in fighting hunger. You mentioned in your testimony that
this program has been riddled with many programs. What can Con-
gress do to fix these problems to make the program more effective?
Mr. LAREW. Yeah, I appreciate that. And it is an important
issue, right, being able to connect those growers of good quality
food like your Pennsylvania farmers to consumers and making
those connections.
The program that USDA developed I think, you know, had good
intentions. I think a big piece of this though is making better con-
nections to those smaller scale, both distributors and farmers. I
think that building those stronger connections which USDA cur-
rently does not have will be one step. But also recognizing as we
stated before here, recognizing the efficiency and benefit of SNAP
itself and ways to continue to improve not just with this program
but also SNAP and other ways to continue to build these connec-
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tions to those who are food insecure, it has been an important
issue. Thank you.
Mr. EVANS. I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman yields back.
Now we recognize Mr. Bishop, the gentleman from North Caro-
lina, for 5 minutes.
Mr. BISHOP. Thank you, Madam Chairman. And one of the
things about being so low on the seniority totem pole is that some-
times a lot of ground has been covered by the time it gets to me.
So I would like to focus on just one topic, I think, and Mr. Castore,
I would like to address a question to you.
I was minded in your exchange with Mr. Balderson and your tes-
timony—or reminded of a fellow named Spiro Kartsonis who runs
a great little family restaurant in Monroe, North Carolina called
Hilltop. And he told me shortly after he was required by order of
the governor of North Carolina to shut down, that he had a dead
loss of $75,000 of perishable goods in his inventory. And you made
reference to that in your exchange with Mr. Balderson and in your
testimony. So it is a working capital loss that is irreplaceable for
very small businesses in a lot of cases. Would you not agree that
fixing that through the Paycheck Protection Program or a grant or
something is critical to lots of small businesses being able to sur-
vive?
Mr. CASTORE. Thank you, sir. Yes. I would agree whole-
heartedly with that sentiment. And I think a couple of the other
witnesses have kind of touched on it. We made PPP work. We fit
within the hours, the employer restrictions and everything, but
having more flexibility if there is another round of PPP to cover
some of those things, additional grant funds, it is absolutely crit-
ical. We are small to medium sized. There are so many in Ohio
that are smaller than us that cannot take that $75,000 loss that
is closing down.
Mr. BISHOP. And following that up, and I do not know if it was
touched on by Mr. Hern, but he said there is $138 billion. I think
the number is actually $133 billion of money already appropriated
into the Paycheck Protection Program which has basically expired.
Ranking Member Chabot has a bill that would just amend that to
allow folks, companies, all sorts of very small businesses who can
document a very significant revenue loss to get another round of
that and they are forgivable loans again like the first ones were,
so sort of like a grant. And so I think there is overwhelming sup-
port in the House for that. There is a discharge petition pending
for people to sign it and yet the leadership is blocking it from a
vote because we had disagreements on illegal immigration and how
many trillions need to go to state and local governments.
Do you think the American people are as mystified as I am why
the House leadership will not allow that one point of agreement to
go ahead and go forward so people can make use of, small busi-
nesses can make use of that $138 billion of money already appro-
priated while we otherwise solve these other big problems later?
Mr. CASTORE. You know, I think that it is getting increasingly
hard. I can hardly think of anyone except maybe barring my wife
who I agree with the politics entirely on in the world, and I am
dumbfounded a lot that we cannot focus more on the things that
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we do agree on and the things that we do need to do, and this falls
into that category. I understand how politics gets attached to ev-
erything, but this is just small business. These are just people who
need help. This is exactly why government is supposed to be here
is to reach out and get us through this. We need you guys, and it
is one of those things that the less we can get all these other issues
conflated with it and the more we can just say breweries need you,
restaurants need you, small business needs you, let’s get something
through. We can even fix it. We can add to it later, but let’s help
out in some way because I think a lot of us will not be around if
it takes too much longer.
Mr. BISHOP. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Castore.
As somebody who is new up here, I do not understand it either.
And interestingly, we have one more opportunity this week before
we are gone for October to fix that one little problem and make an
enormous difference in the lives of all these small businesses out
there that are struggling to survive and all the employees who de-
pend on them.
With that, Madam Chairman and Ranking Member Chabot, I
yield back. Thank you.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman yields back.
Mr. Castore, what would you prefer, debt financing or more
grants?
Mr. CASTORE. I would prefer all of the above, actually. In terms
of how I think debt financing works for some people in some situa-
tions, I think that grants obviously work for some people in most
every situation. But we need dollars. We need options and we
need——
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The CARES Act that we passed back
in May it is sitting in the Senate side and that includes grants and
the reforms to make those loans more—to provide more access to
those businesses that were left behind and, that did not have an
opportunity to access those loans in the first and second tranche
that we passed. So as a matter of fairness, that is not included in
the Ranking Member’s legislation but it is included in the CARES
Act, in the HEROES Act, plus the new bill that we just introduced
this week.
Now we recognize the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Schneider, for
5 minutes.
Mr. SCHNEIDER. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
I want to in particular thank the witnesses today for sharing
your story. You represent the millions of small businesses across
our country who are struggling in this crisis. The pandemic has af-
fected every aspect of your business, their business, and in no
small part the impact on our supply chains has been devastating.
And I also want to thank the Committee, and always the Com-
mittee staff for working through the challenges to allow us to have
this hearing to talk about this important issue.
Later today, the House is going to be voting on a bill I intro-
duced, a bipartisan piece of legislation, again, the example of us
coming together, working together. It is called the COVID Prepare
Act. The idea behind the bill is fairly straightforward. As we face
the pandemic, as we have struggled and so many small businesses
have struggled through the spring and the summer just scraping
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by to make ends meet, we need to know that all aspects of our Fed-
eral government have a plan for the expected rise in cases and new
challenges we will face in the fall and into the winter.
So the COVID Prepare Act would require each agency to present
to Congress their plan so the American people will have trans-
parency and confidence that their government is working on their
behalf.
As our witnesses can attest, a critical aspect of this is supply
chain, and every stakeholder within the food supply chain in par-
ticular has had to adapt to the new reality. Like all small busi-
nesses, they have had to be nimble and figure out how to make a
square peg fit into a round hole by switching from indoor dining
to a focus on carryout, shifting from a delivery model as direct to
consumer or the myriad of other ways that they relied on their own
creativity simply to stay afloat.
But these small businesses and millions of others around the
country should not have to be on their own standing alone, and
that is what has been so deeply frustrating about this pandemic,
the Federal government not stepping up to this challenge to pro-
vide industries with the necessary guidance for safely operating in
this pandemic and finding a way through to the other side.
We all know that small businesses will need additional financial
assistance. As we just talked about a moment ago, the question of
whether it is loans or grants is an important question. Businesses
are already on the edge of financial ruin. Many are closing their
doors permanent.
That is why the assistance we are providing in the HEROES Act
is so important, and the revamped version of that bill introduced
this week has to come to the floor for a vote and ultimately go to
the Senate. But we also know that we need guidance to get
through and operate safely in this new environment.
So let me start with you, Mr. Larew, if that is okay. Thanks for
joining us, and thanks for all you do on behalf of our country as
a farmer. One of my colleagues earlier mentioned their experience
working on a farm. I worked on a chicken farm as well. I know how
hard it is from a day-to-day basis, but more importantly, I under-
stand the complexities of trying to get product to market on a con-
sistent basis.
As you highlight in your testimony, with meat packing facilities,
certain parts of the food supply chain were particularly impacted
by COVID-19 because they could either not or would not enact so-
cial distancing measures, and if they could it had a severe impact
on capacity.
Looking forward to the fall and the winter, what guidance can
Federal government provide from USDA, OSHA, and other Federal
agencies that would help agricultural producers maintain capacity
while incorporating best practices and social distancing?
Mr. LAREW. Thank you. And thank you for the question there.
So one of the first things I think that bears repeating here is the
need to build more resilience into the system, which I think would
be beneficial from the farm level, actually through the food chain
itself, and particularly for farm workers and for those food workers
who have been severely impacted.
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So building that resilience involves a couple of things. First of
all, it is trying to remove some of the level of concentration that
is currently there, which involves anti-trust enforcement. It is also
supporting the ability for small and very small processing plants
right now to be able to get their inspection to a level that they have
more markets available. Currently, it is cost-prohibitive for those
small and very small plants to be able to meet a level of inspection
that allows them to shift interstate. And so supporting measures
like the RAMP-UP Act is one of those pieces there.
The more that we can build resilience by taking the amount of
workers that we have I think, you know, as I mentioned earlier,
50 meat processing plants process 98 percent of the meat in this
country. That is not good for farmers. It is not good ultimately for
the food chain and its resilience, and ultimately for our food secu-
rity. So from a farmer and consumer point of view it is all about
building that resilience.
Mr. SCHNEIDER. Thank you. And I am out of time but let me
just say with one last concluding thought, I know how hard it is
for you as business owners, business leaders, but also the employ-
ees in your businesses. These essential workers are showing up to
work every day. We are so grateful for them. For all you do, for
all they do, thank you. And we will work to make sure we get the
relief necessary to move forward.
With that I yield back.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman yields back.
The gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Burchett, is recognized for
5 minutes.
Mr. BURCHETT. Thank you, Chairlady. I appreciate you all
being here and appreciate the panel very much.
I see one person up there, Mr. Wright, who probably does not
speak with an accent. I think I saw where he was from Alabama,
so I might just call on him if that is all right.
I am from Tennessee, so we can say that. I guess some are snick-
ering but I guess they get it pretty quick.
How long did it take you to obtain your PPE?
Mr. WRIGHT. I think it took probably less than 4 weeks for us
to get that. We were very fortunate in the fact of having a medium-
sized bank that still has local leadership in it that kind of held our
hand through that. So I think it was maybe 3 to 4 weeks at the
most.
Mr. SCHNEIDER. Okay. You recorded in your testimony as say-
ing that you doubled the rate of pay for our employees early in the
pandemic and provided bonuses and overtime pay as the pandemic
wore on. Have your employees returned to their pre-pandemic
wages?
Mr. WRIGHT. What we did on that is that we paid an extra
week of pay for the first month and the second month. We trans-
ferred our debt over to a percentage of their pay. Everyone has re-
turned to the same level of pay. We continued to put some stuff out
there time to time, but I chose to go the bonus route with that
extra week pay.
Mr. BURCHETT. Right. Okay. Has the $600 per pay in unem-
ployment compensation affected your store’s workforce?
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Mr. WRIGHT. Early on we saw the challenges with that as we
tried to reach out. And again, we were fortunate to find some col-
lege students from Auburn that we were able to employ on a short-
term basis. Again, that has improved now in the last few weeks
reaching out. So initially it was an issue.
Mr. BURCHETT. Great.
Mr. Larew, let me ask you a question. Can you walk us through
a farmer’s decision-making process when faced with supply chain
shocks?
Mr. LAREW. Yeah, well, that is a massive question. But you
know, which can vary greatly. And I might just reference the rea-
son why it is complicated, it is pretty obvious in the sense that if
you are a hog producer and you are raising a set of animals up,
they are being primed to be ready for market at a certain weight
to be processed. And when those challenges happened that is where
you saw processing plants being shut down and therefore forcing
producers to make very difficult choices and in many cases needing
to euthanize those animals.
If we are talking about beef, for those independent ranchers out
there, beyond the complexities of trying to determine what the
market price truly is, they also struggled with these beef plant clo-
sures. For them, they can put animals either on feed or on pasture
for a little bit longer but those take those animals out of condition
if you will and means that their ultimate price that they are going
to get is much lower and obviously, their input costs are higher.
If you were storing grain, that is a very different matter, but the
grain markets pretty much across the board have been severely low
for many, many years. So for all of these farmers who have been
operating on very low margins, these disruptions along the supply
chains have just been really devastating and really kind of com-
pounded the economic challenges that they already had.
Mr. BURCHETT. I have found in Tennessee the meat processors,
they used to call them slaughter houses but I guess that is not po-
litically correct, but the meat processors, it is hard to find one, and
when you do you have to schedule them out months in advance and
that is just not a way to do business.
I do not know if it is by design or not, but during this whole
thing I have noticed that the big boys are systematically going to
crush the little people and I have found also that over half of our
meat processors in this country are foreign owned and that to me
is a scary proposition. It is very scary. And thank you for that.
How much time do I have? I have 41 seconds. I will have to go
quick.
Mr. Castore—I do not know if I am saying that right or not—
why does a brewery make more money from taproom sales than
sales through distributors?
Mr. CASTORE. First and foremost, it is the cost of the pack-
aging. The packages that we put our beer into cost as much if not
more than the liquid itself. Each can runs about 20 cents. You have
your Packtracker on top of it. The cardboard case trays that they
go into. Then you have delivery drivers, other parts of the supply
chain, and they just add up the cost. That direct to consumer, I am
just handing a can of beer to somebody and they are giving me $6.
Mr. BURCHETT. Okay. Well, I have run out of time.
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For the record, Chairlady, I just want you to know I have had
more beer spilled on me than I have ever drank, so being a Baptist
I need to say that.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman——
Mr. BURCHETT. And you know the difference between a Baptist
and Methodist, don’t you, Chairlady? A Baptist does not speak to
you in the liquor store. So thank you all.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentleman’s time has expired.
Mr. BURCHETT. Thank you, Chairlady.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. The gentlelady from Minnesota, Ms.
Craig, is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. CRAIG. Well, thank you so much, Madam Chairwoman. And
I want to say thank you to both you and the Ranking Member for
holding this incredibly important hearing today.
As mentioned in various testimony, the reason for this domino ef-
fect on our food systems is really down to the tightly bound food
supply chain which is incredibly reliant on each step with little
room for error.
I am a member of both the House Ag and this Committee, and
I have seen firsthand during this pandemic how the food supply
chain from farmers to meat processors to grocery stores to fisheries
to restaurants and more has been greatly affected by this pan-
demic.
I also am a cofounder of the bipartisan Congressional Supply
Chain Caucus. I have been working directly with leaders back in
my district and here in D.C. to learn more about this domino effect.
One industry that is a piece of the food supply chain and that
I know we have in all of our districts are these local independent
restaurants. The independent restaurant industry continues to suf-
fer as more are forced to close their doors, and now in places like
Minnesota, they are forced to figure out how they are going to stay
afloat when they lose that outdoor seating. It gets pretty cold in
Minnesota and it is impossible to sit outdoors in the winter.
So I have two questions related to restaurants. The first for Ms.
Gorton and the second for Mr. Larew. Mr. Larew, it is great to see
you.
I will get my questions out of the way and then I will ask each
of you to answer those afterwards.
Ms. Gorton, you spoke about the trouble restaurants are in in
your testimony. Can you speak to how giving restaurants as pro-
posed by the updated HEROES Act, which contains $120 billion for
payroll and other expenses would help your business, restaurants,
and the overall health of the food supply chain?
And then second, Mr. Larew, I have heard extensively from farm-
ers in my district that programs to connect with local schools and
restaurants would be beneficial. Obviously, I am right there with
Ms. Finkenauer with the RAMP-UP Act. What programs do you
think could be helpful to increase the pipeline of farm products to
restaurants and to diversifying our food supply chains?
So first, Ms. Gorton?
Ms. GORTON. Thank you.
The recently updated HEROES Act does a lot to address the
plight of restaurants, allowing for more flexibility for the forgive-
ness of debt payments to us, their suppliers. And for forgivability
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of the cost of supplies. And so this certain goes a long way to sort
of the reverse domino effect. If we can help the ultimate res-
taurants, that is going to flow back up the supply chain. It is going
to unstick product from being backed up in the supply chain. It is
going to allow us as suppliers to your constituents and their inde-
pendent restaurants to continue to extend credit and provide food
as they ramp up and try to fill up their pantries again.
I might say, however, though that while the independent res-
taurants are absolutely hurting, one of the things that is over-
looked in this current bill are franchise restaurants. And I just
want to make one comment about that.
I think that there seems to be a misperception that the name on
the outside of the restaurant that is associated with a chain means
that there is money flowing into those restaurants from the
franchisor. Many of the small franchisees are just like independent
operators. They may have more than one location but they, too, are
suffering from the same problems created by the pandemic, the
smaller, independent restaurants.
So I would encourage Congress to include franchisees in any re-
lief that is provided. Thank you.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much, Ms. Gorton.
And Mr. Larew?
Mr. LAREW. Absolutely. Thank you for the question because it
is always important to try to find those connections from the family
farmers out there to the businesses themselves and in this case,
independent restaurants.
There are a number of USDA programs that Congress included
in the most recent Farm Bill which I think is really helpful, and
the more that we can do to confer use of that, but the land program
which is a local agriculture market program really helps farmers
out there build marketing plans, build connections out there that
would include those restaurants. It also ties in with farmers mar-
kets as well. And also, the local food promotion programs. Those,
along with the Farm to School grant program collectively work to
try to build these connections.
So the more that we can do to kind of reinforce the access to
these programs I think will get us a long step toward building that
resilience they speak of.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much, Mr. Larew.
Anda Madam Chairwoman, it appears I am out of time, so I will
yield back.
Chairwoman VELÁZQUEZ. Thank you. The gentlelady yields
back.
Thank you again to all our witnesses today for their testimony
and for offering their views on the challenges facing America’s food
system and what America’s small businesses need to recover from
this historic, unprecedented crisis.
By sharing your experiences, we will be able to better assist all
small businesses in the difficult road ahead. Even though I am
proud of both the PPP and EIDL programs, we must continue to
work to find other ways to assist our country’s small businesses
from restaurants and grocery stores to famers and processors so
that they and their workers can continue to ensure that the rest
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of us can have access to food, whether from a store, a restaurant,
a farmer’s market, or a food pantry.
I ask unanimous consent that members have 5 legislative days
to submit statements and supporting materials for the record.
Without objection, so ordered.
If there is no further business before the Committee, we are ad-
journed.
[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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APPENDIX
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Æ
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File and source
- File
- CHRG-116hhrg41470.pdf
- Size
- 106,166,943 bytes
- SHA-256
- 027a5bb1779cee8c51ded57076b29e1fe14e404ef800354732e6614518a61585
- Our copy
- CHRG-116hhrg41470.pdf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov