Uber Eats Launches $240,000 Fund To Support Black Restaurants In The U.K.

Uber Eats has partnered with Enterprise Nation and Be Inclusive Hospitality to launch a $240,000 fund to support Black-owned restaurants in the United Kingdom.

The Caterer reports the Uber Eats and its partners will expand the Black Business Fund and will award $10,000 in grants to 25 Black-owned restaurants. The fund is offering businesses five times what it did when it launched the fund last year and gave ten Black-owned restaurants $5,000 grants.

The grants will help Black businesses in the hospitality industry financially and with their operations. Black-owned restaurants with less than five locations are eligible to apply for the grants. The starting date to apply for the grants is Oct. 14 and will remain open through Nov. 25.

“The launch of this initiative is really timely. The theme for Black History Month this year is Time for Change: Action Not Words’, and this fund, and mentorship will help in a very tangible way to remove some of the barriers that Black business owners continue to face, during an extremely difficult trading period,” Lorraine Copes told The Caterer.

According to research, the grant money is needed for Black businesses in the UK. Be Inclusive found almost half (43%) of Black business owners believe their ethnicity and race have hindered the development of their business in some way. The highest percentage to be reported by any ethnic minority group.

Additional research by the Resolution Foundation revealed hospitality workers in the UK from Black, African, Caribbean and Black British backgrounds are the least likely to be the highest paid across all age groups.

Uber Eats has committed itself to improve opportunities and funding for Black Businesses in the UK and the US. Their commitments include highlighting Black-owned restaurants on their site, dedicating more than $10 million to support Black Businesses around the world and partnering with EatOkra to support Black-owned restaurants across the US.

“Given the barriers that Black owners face, we are incredibly proud to expand our support of small Black-owned businesses across the country,” Uber Eats UK & Ireland General Manager Matthew Price told The Caterer. “Through this fund we want to help the next generation of chefs and entrepreneurs thrive.”