Page 2 - Ohio Restaurant Association Industry Awards

Welcome to our 2021 ORA Industry Awards Celebration. This is a time to reflect and look ahead.
Events like this are priceless and precious, as we take time to toast the best among us and learn more about extraordinary people who make this industry so special.
It is a challenge to select a small number of award winners out of the 585,000 people who work in restaurants and foodservice in Ohio. We are a force in the state, as the second largest private employer, and critical to the economy. In fact, restaurants represent about 10% of Ohio’s workforce, and another 10% indirectly support restaurants as suppliers, farmers and consulting partners such as technol- ogy companies, marketing, legal and accounting firms, and tax advisors.
As we reflect on 2020 and the start of 2021, we know many of you faced the challenge of your lifetime. While some sectors of our industry thrived with pick-up windows, delivery and take-out, most suffered.
Our national industry has lost $290 billion dollars in sales due to the pandemic and government-mandated restrictions, and at one point more than half of our employ- ees were furloughed across the U.S. In Ohio, we believe the state lost more than 3,000 restaurants and bars due to closures, but more than 20,000 survived.
In keeping with our mission, vision and rich history of providing support to the restaurant, foodservice & hospitality industry reaching back over 100 years, the Ohio Restaurant Association played a key role in guiding our industry through the height of the pandemic. We never wavered from a belief that we could make a difference by working tirelessly on your behalf. We learned everything we could about COVID-19 and government plans, communicated non-stop, and battled to help our industry survive. We successfully secured government support and raised advocacy to an entirely new level with the support of so many of our board mem- bers and leaders in Ohio.
The story of our industry during this time will be written in more detail one day, but now is the time to recognize greatness that occurred in the face of adversity. Now is the time to look ahead and lead this industry into a new era of prosperity, prominence and participation.
John Barker
Welcome