If you own a bar or a restaurant in Grand Rapids, there are grants available to help reimburse you winterizing your outdoor dining.

According to WOOD, some new money has been added to the Winter Ready grant program to helps downtown bars and restaurants set up outdoor facilities to help keep them going during the pandemic.

The Grand Rapids' Downtown Development Authority gave the go ahead for an additional $175,000 to help local businesses. This was because of the current no indoor dining that is in play until December 20.

With COVID-19 cases skyrocketing right now, I have a feeling, much like during the last shutdown in the spring, indoor dining will be down for the winter. With cold season here and three and a half months of cold weather, it will be awhile before we are allowed to dine in again.

The idea first came into play back in October where some streets in Grand Rapids have been blocked to allow restaurants and bars to extend their business out into the street in order to allow people to dine and drink in a safer a situation than being inside where the air is recycled and providing a better chance at catching the virus.

With the cold months ahead, restaurants and bars need something to help them through these next months, or some of them won't be around when things warm up again.

So far nearly $400,000 in grants have been made available to downtown restaurants and bars.

While some businesses are already getting creative, hopefully these grants help others get involved in order to sustain their business so it can survive the pandemic.

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