Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) and Chase Announce 40 Recipients of Innovator Awards, Investing $1 Million in Small Businesses Driving Community and Sustainability

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03/25/2026 - 09:00 AM

The First Iteration of the Grant Program Recognizes Innovative Social Impact Practices, Including Values-Driven Workforce Development, Civic Engagement, Waste Diversion and Preventing Systemic Industry Burnout

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) and Chase today announced the 40 recipients of the IRC and Chase Innovator Awards, a $1 million grant program celebrating the ideas, practices and business models that promote sustainability and environmental innovation. Selected from across the country, each recipient has received a $25,000 grant to strengthen and iterate proven practices in sustainability, workforce well-being and community impact.

“The Innovator Award recipients are building a brighter future for independent restaurants,” said Erika Polmar, Executive Director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition. “From advancing mental health care and equitable labor models to pioneering zero-waste operations and regenerative sourcing, these leaders are developing bold solutions that push the industry forward. With support from Chase, we’re proud to spotlight the groundbreaking work happening in restaurants nationwide—work that can be adopted, adapted and scaled across the country.”

“We’re proud to stand with the IRC to uplift small businesses that make neighborhoods more resilient,” said Paul Needham, Head Dining & Lifestyle at Chase. “These honorees show that innovation and responsibility go hand-in-hand, rethinking food waste and ecological stewardship, investing in teams and deepening local ties while running healthy businesses. Our goal is to shine a light on these trailblazers and help more restaurants and communities thrive.”

The Innovator Awards are part of the IRC and Chase multi-year partnership, which also includes the $3 million IRC and Chase Disaster Relief Fund. To date, the programs have awarded $4 million in grants to independent restaurants and bars, with an additional $2 million pledged for disaster relief in 2026.

Common Threads

The 40 awardees were carefully selected for advancing replicable, values-driven practices that demonstrate measurable impact and potential to grow. Themes represented across this year’s recipients include:

Community impact and civic engagement: restaurants functioning as hubs for cultural exchange, food access, education and advocacy, integrating community care into their core business models.
Workforce well-being and equitable models: fair wages, pooled tips, profit sharing, childcare access, mental health resources and transparent financial practices that treat restaurant work as a respected profession.
Sustainability and local sourcing: zero-waste kitchens, preservation and fermentation, closed-loop systems and regenerative farm partnerships that reduce environmental harm and strengthen regional supply chains.
Cultural preservation and representation: honoring immigrant and Indigenous foodways, intergenerational leadership and neighborhood-rooted concepts that sustain local identity and economic opportunity.

Innovators Leading the Way

The Innovator Awards recipients demonstrate the many unique ways that independent restaurants serve their neighbors. Standout examples of sustainability, care for teams and community connection found across the US include:

Lita (New Jersey): A radically reimagined labor model where all staff rotate between front- and back-of-house roles, share equal base pay and pool tips across the team, promoting equity, empathy and long-term career sustainability. Grant funds will support training and documentation to share this replicable workforce approach.
Immigrant Food (Washington, D.C.): A restaurant and nonprofit platform that translates food into civic engagement through menu design, partnerships and programming that celebrates immigrant cultures and advances immigrant rights. Funding will help scale community storytelling and advocacy initiatives.
Miss Kim (Michigan): A people-first restaurant model grounded in fair wages, profit sharing, open-book finance and staff education and scholarships, treating restaurant work as a respected profession. Grant support will help deepen transparent practices and expand workforce development programming.
Güero (Oregon): A year-round community hub offering bilingual education, chef incubators, ecological programming and no-cost community access to space and resources, positioning restaurants as durable civic infrastructure. Grant funding will bolster education and incubator programming to broaden local impact.
Magpie (California): A farm-driven restaurant that integrates preservation, waste reduction, whole-animal cooking and long-term relationships with regional producers, demonstrating disciplined sustainability embedded in everyday operations.

A full list of recipients is available upon request.

About Independent Restaurant Coalition
In March 2020, the restaurant and bar community formed the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) to save independent restaurants and bars from the devastating impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic. We continue to fight to create meaningful change for independent restaurants and bars nationwide by providing strong advocacy centered on making sure that independent businesses are being seen, heard and supported by federal policy makers. For more information or to sign up for newsletters, please visit independentrestaurantcoalition.com.

About Chase
Chase is the U.S. consumer and commercial banking business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America with operations worldwide, assets of $4.4 trillion and $362 billion in stockholders’ equity as of December 31, 2025. Chase serves more than 86 million consumers and 7.4 million small businesses with a broad range of financial services, including personal banking, credit cards, mortgages, auto financing, investment advice, small business loans and payment processing. Customers can choose how and where they want to bank: more than 5,000 branches in 48 states and the District of Columbia, nearly 15,000 ATMs, mobile, online and by phone. For more information, go to chase.com.