Florida

Black Restaurant Week Florida: How you can support local Black-owned businesses

ORLANDO, Fla. — The third annual Black Restaurant Week Florida runs now through Sunday.

To participate, people are asked to support Black-owned culinary businesses, including catering services, food trucks, and restaurants.

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According to the Independent Restaurant Coalition, 500,000 restaurants and bars are faced with an uncertain future due to lost revenue and increased debt over the past 22 months, and 1.1 million minority-owned businesses often face heightened challenges and disparities when securing business funding.

Those statistics fueled Black Restaurant Week’s founders to launch an additional “More Than Just a Week” campaign.

Read: The impact of the Great Resignation on Black-owned businesses and workers

“More Than Just a Week speaks to our commitment to support the black culinary community throughout the entire year,” states Falayn Ferrell, Black Restaurant Week LLC’s operations managing partner. “More than 90,000 restaurants and bars closed nationwide since 2020, it is essential that we create a platform that drives awareness to black-owned culinary businesses outside of our culinary tour.”

You can see a list of local Black-owned restaurants to support this week, and beyond, by clicking here.

Read: New directory hopes to bring visibility to DeLand black-owned businesses

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Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson, WFTV.com

Sarah Wilson joined WFTV Channel 9 in 2018 as a digital producer after working as an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly a decade in various communities across Central Florida.