Small Business Disaster Relief
Catherine Glover, Director of the award-winning Small Business Development Center at NKU was featured on the CBC webinar today with HR Elements.
The NKU SBDC provides business planning, consulting, and training services to existing businesses and potential entrepreneurs. It is in part federally funded, so your tax dollars have prepaid for our time. The consulting services are always confidential. It is located at NKU in the Haile/US Bank College of Business building, but are currently working virtually.
Here’s what you missed today and remember to apply for everything!
Most centralized and current site for small businesses in KY: http://kybizhelp.com
Checklist for managing in difficult financial times here.
KY’s recently updated unemployment portal: https://kcc.ky.gov/career/Pages/default.aspx
An overview and comparison of the various federal assistance programs here.
Paycheck Protection Program here. Click tool here to find a nearby lender eligible to issue a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program.
Small Business Owner’s Guide to the CARES Act here.
SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan apply here.
In addition to these resources, the Kentucky SBDC will hold a weekly webinar on Wednesdays at Noon (EDT) to discuss these programs and other assistance. Register here.
To check the status of your SBA EIDL loan application or for questions about the SBA EIDL program, please contact the SBA Customer Service Center:
By Phone: 1-800-659-2955 (TTY/TDD: 1-800-877-8339) By Email: disastercustomerservice@sba.gov
KY Unemployment (recently updated site): https://kcc.ky.gov/career/Pages/default.aspx
Commonwealth of Kentucky Update
Governor Andy Beshear made a call to action yesterday for donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers. PPE Donations are now being accepted at all 16 Ky. State Police posts. A new hotline (1-833-GIVE PPE) and website (giveppe.ky.gov) have streamlined the entire donation process.
Gov. Beshear said on Saturday that Kentucky is adopting on a voluntary basis the new guidance from the CDC recommending that people wear cloth masks in some situations. The new CDC guidance can be found here.
Read all updates at https://governor.ky.gov/news.
Nonprofit Member Updates
The Victorian at Riverside, formerly known as Covington Ladies Home, has an extra need for PPE gowns, masks, shoe covers, bleach wipes and cleaning supplies. Call 859-431-6913 and arrange drop off between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm.
Christine Barth, Manager of Operations with CBC recently interviewed Roger Babik, President of Master Provisions, through a Question/Answer format.
How is Master Provisions doing through all this?
Each day, we continue to serve God by connecting resources like high-quality food to hungry neighbors in our communities through 185 partner organizations. On our biggest single day during the crisis, we distributed 37,000 pounds of food to our community. Overall food demand increased 20% the weeks of 3/16 and 3/23. We have appointments with 5 new nonprofit partners scheduled this week.
How have your daily operations changed?
We use a forehead thermometer to take the temperature of each person entering the warehouse. Many surfaces along with pens, clipboards and handles are wiped down regularly. Groups coming to pick up food must limit themselves to 2 representatives and we are moving them more quickly through the line and cooler. We prepared 700 boxes in advance at our facility for the last Saturday Isaiah House mobile food pantries completed in Ludlow and Covington on March 28. Boxes were loaded into cars or shuttled to homes instead of being assembled in public with recipients standing in line in close quarters.
Are donations down?
Only donations of bread, packaged and dry goods are down. God is providing through businesses items like eggs and milk that are normally not donated to us for distribution. We are receiving an influx of fresh fruits and vegetables. The bread supply has improved this week after two weeks of abnormally sparse supply.
How is COVID-19 affecting the number of volunteers and how they are able to work?
We are functioning with less volunteers than normal and keeping them more spread out in our warehouse. Average daily volunteerism has declined by about 50%. We are not using volunteers under age 18 at this time.
How has it affected your employees?
About half of our team members were moved to remote duty. Several with pre-existing health conditions were moved to remote shortly after the pandemic was declared. Team morale is strong!
What can CBC members do to help you?
Members in good health can volunteer weekdays by arriving at 9:00 am at 7725 Foundation Dr. in Florence. We serve lunch at 11:30 daily as our way to thank our volunteers. Financial contributions are welcomed to cover increased operations costs during this time so that we can distribute more food to more hungry people. We operate in faith, not fear, while implementing the suggestions of medical/ governmental authorities.
Our team thanks God for the opportunity to serve in such a caring, collaborative community!
