End of Year Message from IRA President & CEO Sam Toia

Throughout 2021, restaurant operators and their team members have faced countless challenges - often without simple solutions. It has been another rollercoaster year as we all work through the ongoing pandemic that has upended our industry for 22 months straight. During this time, the IRA has been centrally focused on our mission to promote, protect, educate, and advance the restaurant and hospitality industry of Illinois.

As we have for over a century, we advocated at all levels for the best interests of state's restaurant community in 2021. Our fight to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) continues, and we are pressing state and local leaders to use more federal funding to support restaurants and their employees in 2022. As you know, local officials have considered a host of different mitigation strategies in recent weeks, and both Chicago and Cook County determined to mandate vaccines for indoor dining at restaurants. We've made it known to officials that shutting down again or implementing capacity restrictions would be the final straw to break our local restaurants!

I also want to remind each of you that the IRA is here as a resource to you and your business. Throughout the year, we continued to offer discounted training and certification classes, provide 17 expert webinars, maintain a pro bono legal network, make 10,000+ calls providing technical assistance to operators through the Cook County Small Business Assistance Program, build an extensive catalogue of reopening service providers, share frequent updates, and more.

In additional, we provided more than 550 foodservice workers with over $277,000 in Restaurant Employee Relief Fund grants. Please consider donating what you can, and encourage your team members facing hardship to apply for relief as well.

During all of this, we brought culinary enthusiasts and tastemakers together at Chicago Gourmet and relaunched our signature networking events like the Golf Classic and Rooftop Member Mixer.

The IRA would be nothing without the support of our members, Officers, Board of Directors and all our corporate sponsors, who continue to step up to support us through this extremely difficult time. A special thank you to IRA Chairman Sam Sanchez, whose endless passion and commitment to this Association and our industry has guided us through the past 12 months.

Next year, you will continue to see us out front on the issues that matter most to your business. We'll will bring restaurants together to make their voices heard, offer you resources to help your business and staff succeed, and provide stability and guidance for our industry. If you have not done so already - call us, utilize us, and join us anytime. We are stronger when we stand together.

It has been a privilege to lead this Association for the past nine years, and I look forward to a brighter 2022 for us all. Have a safe and happy New Year!