Metro business owner says she's missing $8K in grant money from local non-profit
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A metro business owner says her small business was promised $8,000 in grant money and the funds are no where to be found.
"Now the business has went back to struggling," says Olivia Lewis.
She says it's a struggle she wasn't planning for.
She says her food truck, the Blackxican Soul Food Shak, has been in business for more than a decade.
"I just started a new concept about two years ago. I used to be just the Soul Food Shak," Lewis said.
Lewis says she and other small business owners applied for an $8,000 grant offered by the Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City.
"We were notified back at the end of July about the accelerator food truck grant for $8,000 that we were possibly able to apply for," Lewis said. "And so when we applied, we got qualified and they asked us to do some classes."
In an email Lewis shared with News 4, it shows she's completed all necessary classes and that the company would be in touch with her about the grant money in the following days.
It's been a little over a week and Lewis says she's still without a check.
"We did everything on our end and we were still just waiting to hear from them on the funding part," Lewis said.
In her application paperwork, it says at the bottom of the page, the funding limit is $8,000 per business participant.
News 4 reached out to the Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, who sent the following statement.
We have worked for the past three years to utilize funds from the American Rescue
The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City
Plan Act to develop recovery and growth programs for small businesses in OKC. There
are legal challenges to spending the funds beyond 2024, and unspent funds may have
to be returned to the federal government starting in 2025.
One of our programs was underwriting a business operations training program for food
truck operators, which provided $5,000 in free services and instruction, as well as a
potential grant of up to $8,000 for business operations. The applications stated that
funding was not guaranteed. Grants will payout $4,000 initially with the potential for
more if there are additional funds available as ARPA programs wind down. Checks will
be distributed by November.
Reaching more OKC residents and business owners than expected is ultimately a sign
of success in our efforts to boost our community’s economic recovery from the
pandemic. To date, we have helped almost 1,000 businesses and nonprofits through
technical assistance, exterior reimbursement, and cohort-business development
programs. We expect to have spent the ARPA funds before the deadline at the end of
2024, carefully administering remaining funds to ensure we neither overspend or
underspend