It’s going to take time for Colorado’s struggling restaurant industry to emerge from the shadow of COVID-19, the head of the Colorado Restaurant Association warned Thursday.

Association CEO Sonia Riggs emphasized during a news conference that the restaurant industry needs continuous support from local, state and federal lawmakers as well as customers in the coming months and years to truly recover from the fallout of the pandemic. She estimated that a full recovery for the industry could take three to five years after Colorado restaurants lost over $3 billion in 2020.

“We’d like to see continued efforts to revitalize our local communities from the state and local governments, including restaurant-specific grant programs and continue to expand it outdoor dining,” Riggs said.

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On the federal level, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan on Thursday, a bill that includes $28.6 billion in restaurant revitalization funding. And on the state level, legislators worked on a variety of bills aimed to help economic recovery in Colorado’s restaurant industry. Colorado extended the sales tax holiday, provided an opportunity for to-go alcoholic beverages and offered grant programs to struggling businesses, she said.

“We are grateful, but this alone will not be enough to pull restaurants back from the brink,” Riggs said.

The hit to the restaurant industry was powerful as leisure and hospitality employers in Colorado lost 41,600 jobs, Riggs said.

According to the National Restaurant Association, 1 in 6 restaurants across the nation closed permanently as of October.

That was before Colorado experienced higher levels of pandemic-related restrictions through November, December and January as COVID-10 cases rose.

Riggs said the exact number of closure since then has been difficult to track because of the hodge-podge between temporary and permanent closures, but she said the organization planned to track those numbers.

To get the industry back on track, Riggs stressed the need for restaurants workers to get vaccinated and for more aggressive efforts to make funding available for restaurants.

“Right now, our number one priority is if they’re already in business, let’s keep them in business,” Riggs said.

“And if they’re temporarily closed, let’s get them back open.”

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