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The Counter

9 Dec, 11 tweets, 3 min read

#Thread: Many of the restaurants that received the largest pandemic relief loans meant for small business are franchises like McDonald’s & Wendy’s, we found in an analysis. Together, they netted well over $1B in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aid.
thecounter.org/mcdonalds-taco…

Just 1 percent of restaurants received a quarter of the loan money granted to the sector.

How did this happen? Back in the spring, after intense lobbying, Congress approved a loophole in the CARES Act, allowing chains to qualify for small businesses aid as long as they had fewer than 500 employees per restaurant.
thecounter.org/shake-shack-lo…

We examined the 378 fast-food and fast-casual restaurants that received $3 million or more, and found that virtually all were franchises of massive fast-food chains. You wouldn’t know it from the data released by the government: Most operate under generic names.

Some conglomerates even bypassed the $10 million limit by obtaining loans for several different subsidiaries. In one instance, loans registered to a single business address totaled $60 million. thecounter.org/mcdonalds-taco…

Restaurants don’t have to pay back the PPP money if they use it on qualified expenses like employee payroll and rent. So what happens when their landlord is McDonald’s?

McDonald’s leases many stores to franchisees, which then pay the company a percentage of their sales or a minimum rent—whichever is larger.

McDonald’s did not deny that it had indirectly received PPP money through forgivable rent payments, and the company hasn’t forgiven rent for its franchisees.

Recent analyses show that independent restaurants are closing faster than chains during the pandemic. So what would fairer aid look like?

Lawmakers have introduced a bill to provide $120 billion more aid to restaurants. The House version excludes franchises and chains.

Advocates hope that this might make future aid more equitable: “Even though [PPP] wasn't necessarily set up to be unfair—in the end, it was.”
thecounter.org/mcdonalds-taco…

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More from @TheCounter

The Counter

@TheCounter

7 Dec

#THREAD - Millions of Americans—especially those living in rural areas—lack access to running water. Many pay to have water hauled to them, but it can be very expensive.
thecounter.org/ancient-rainwa…

One solution to this is rainwater harvesting, an ancient method of collecting rain from building surfaces and storing it for future use. The technology dates back at least to the dawn of agriculture.

Rainwater harvesting systems are used all over the world, including in China, which helps millions to make extra money through gardening, and India, where thousands of schools are outfitted rainwater catchment systems.

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The Counter

@TheCounter

1 Dec

#THREAD: The link between alcohol and cancer has been evident for over three decades. Why don’t alcohol warning labels reflect that? thecounter.org/public-health-…

Both the CDC and the U.S. Surgeon General have said that even moderate drinking increases one's risk for certain types of cancer.

One analysis published last year estimated that the cancer risk posed by drinking one bottle of wine a week was comparable to smoking five cigarettes for men and 10 for women in the same time span: livescience.com/65092-alcohol-…

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The Counter

@TheCounter

23 Oct

#Thread: Perhaps you’ve encountered a “community fridge” at some point this year, a type of mutual aid in which food donations are placed in a shared refrigerator on the street. People take what they need, and individuals or groups with excess food can give back to the community.

But these fridges have emerged at a fraught cultural moment, and what seems like a win-win initiative has faced NIMBY pushback, vandalism, even fridge theft. thecounter.org/community-frid…

At core, the fridges are intended to mitigate an urgent, clear, rapidly growing problem: The coronavirus pandemic is making millions of Americans food-insecure.
washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…

Read 9 tweets

The Counter

@TheCounter

25 Sep

#THREAD: One year ago, USDA relocated its research arm out of DC, forcing a large number of staffers to resign. Conversations with 20+ current & former employees paint a picture of an agency that's been hollowed out & is failing to live up to its mission. infogram.com/1p0kjlq7gnz6yq…

Over the past year, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has lost decades of expertise on a wide range of subjects, from climate change to antibiotic resistance, from rural economies to organic farming, leaving numerous projects in limbo and severely bottlenecking new research.

Policy makers have long depended on ERS to make sense of what is and isn’t working about the way we produce, market, and access food—information used to then inform policies that address challenges within the food system, from climate change to Covid-19. thecounter.org/usda-research-…

Read 11 tweets

The Counter

@TheCounter

3 Sep

#THREAD: The USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Boxes have cost taxpayers a lot more than what they’re worth, according to public records detailing contractor payments reviewed by The Counter. bit.ly/32VNurW

The agency has paid up to $150 for the boxes, many of which have arrived containing inedible produce and unlabeled meat.

On one occasion, a distributor in Puerto Rico left 600 families waiting for food boxes that never came. Another time, a distributor in Texas stopped delivering boxes to a food bank after receiving criticism from it.

Read 12 tweets

The Counter

@TheCounter

26 Aug

#Thread: This summer has seen not one, not two, but three major foodborne illness outbreaks so far.

Most recently, the nation’s largest stone fruit producer has been linked to a salmonella outbreak, sickening over 100 people in North America. The company has recalled organic, conventional, yellow, and white peaches from Walmart, Target, Aldi, and Kroger. thecounter.org/peaches-recall…

Before that, a separate salmonella outbreak linked to red onions quickly led to the recall of both loose onions & products made with onions. Sickening over 1,200 in the U.S. & Canada, this has already become one of the largest outbreaks in U.S. history. thecounter.org/onion-recall-s…

Read 7 tweets

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