Help Sweet Peas After Restaurant Grant Failure

Sweet Peas is a family-owned restaurant located in the New Bern, North Carolina. During the COVID pandemic, we weathered the outbreak and we saw a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a promised small business grant to keep our business open. Unfortunately, the grant foundation ran out of money and was unable to help. NOW WE NEED OUR HOMETOWN COMMMUNITY HELP to continue to bring all of you the great food you have come to enjoy.

Sweet Peas needs your help! I love serving our New Bern community with my shy demeanor and practicing my southern accent.

My dad “Frank” and I are first generation southerners who were able to gather enough money to start a humble restaurant selling gourmet foods with old family recipes which we are passionate about. This place is important to so many residents of New Bern which offers generous portions and great service. It was, especially, a place that offered comfort food to many people who immigrate to New Bern like us from all over the world who viewed our restaurant as an enclave of sorts; a place where you could get a remedy for homesickness as well as an opinion from family. Any one who knows the owners can testify to how welcoming and warm they are to their customers, always coming out to greet regulars and constantly providing social entertainment.

It has finally come to this point where we need to raise money this one time to pay our bills from the last year.

In addition to this tragedy, like many other small businesses and restaurants, Sweet Peas had been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the never ending on and off stay-at-home orders and the city’s decision to close down dining, business has been extremely slow and we have been struggling to stay open. We have exhausted all of our resources to pay our rent, including personal and government loans. My dad and I have been laboring to accumulate all of our resources and downsize utilities and workers as much as possible to conserve money.

We are currently so defeated because the light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a small business grant was taken away due to a paperwork error on the part the Small Business Association (SBA) which apologized for the error yet cannot assist due to having no more money in the grant pool to give.

Our uncertain future of Sweet Peas has played a huge toll on our mental and physical wellbeing as we are constantly afraid that we might not make it in the coming months.

We plan to use the immediate donations to pay our existing bills and to conduct business as usual. Additionally, we plan to continue welcoming our customers until our last breath as this is our mission and what my dad and I truly love to do as well as the entire Sweet Pea crew!

Therefore, I am reaching out to our fellow friends, family, community members, and people who may know someone who runs a small family business to help our restaurant recover from this traumatic event and continue our great service. We appreciate any and all help and even if you are unable to donate, sharing this post with your family and friends would be deeply appreciated by my dad and I.

If you have any questions about our situation or have suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me directly through this GoFundMe page. Thank you in advance!!