Save Our Restaurant

Hello. My name is Kevin Keister. My wife, Tracy and I own Mr Beans restaurant in Marion Iowa.  We were born and raised in Clinton but relocated here in November 2017 to fulfill a dream my wife had of owning her own business. It is a coffee/sandwich shop with a breakfast and lunch menu. The business has been here in Marion for 16 years and is a popular place in the community. I won't lie, it is a struggle physically and financially running a restaurant. We have 10 employees that are awesome and fun to work with. We closed our doors on March 17, 2020 as per a mandate by the governor of Iowa in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic. We started applying for unemployment and as soon as the SBA announced low interest loans for small businesses to assist them my wife spent 6 hours on the computer filling out paperwork. We were told our application received an A+ rating and it was forwarded on to a loan officer. We never heard from anyone and then the money ran out. We applied for a disaster relief grant as well from the state of Iowa and have received nothing. That grant also ran out of money. They released more money for it and now it is gone also and we still have not received anything. The CARES Act released a second round of small business assistance and we were told our original application could not be used and to fill out their new streamlined application on the website. We tried and tried and were never able to access the application and now the second round of money has run out. We have left messages for Chuck Grassley and Abby Finkenauer to get answers and have yet to hear from them. Congress needs to focus on the people who are struggling and need assistance when they come up with these bills instead of their agendas and special interest groups. The people of this country need the money more than  the Kennedy Center needed it.  I know people and businesses all over are struggling during these unprecedented times and hope everyone makes it through. I would not normally do a fundraiser like this but this restaurant is our only source of income and I don't want to see my wife have to lose her dream. If you can help it would be greatly appreciated, if not we understand that also but we have to try. Please share this with as many people as you can. Take care, be safe and good luck to everyone.