HRA Executive Director’s Message July 2021

Like you, I am sick of hearing that we see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We are out of the tunnel and we need to have back the control of our businesses and our own fates.  We need the government to take a bow for all they have done for us and let the curtain close on all our current guidelines.  I believe restaurant owners and operators can be trusted to take it from here.

Your Executive Committee has loudly voiced your frustration regarding the current situation. The restaurant industry is facing a labor shortage, price escalation, and continued pandemic restrictions among other challenges preventing restaurant establishments from climbing out of the financial hole caused by COVID-19.

We will continue to voice our collective concerns to lawmakers and work towards a complete and expeditious lifting of restrictions. Hawaii has been successful in public engagement to manage the pandemic and restaurants have heavily invested in safety and social distancing compliance measures.

Our main focus is to help move the State of Hawaii towards 70% vaccination to enable Governor Ige to completely remove restrictions. We ask for your help by participating in HIGOTVACCINATED.com, encouraging others to get fully vaccinated, and asking lawmakers to realize that 70% by September is extremely unlikely even with the surge in vaccinations expected from those going back to school and traveling, due to the significant slowdown in daily new vaccination doses.

Your emails and calls of gratitude to HRA’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors over these past 16 months have been greatly appreciated. Your HRA Executive Committee and Board of Directors are contributing many hours each week by understanding the hardship our members continue to face, participating in weekly planning meetings, adjusting their workdays for short notice media requests and being a very loud and consistent voice representing our food service industry to our local government officials.

 

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