Federal Covid Relief Funds Help Businesses, Customers

With remaining federal American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds aimed at helping communities recover from the Covid-19 pandemic beginning to run low, the City of Falls Church has reintroduced its creative way of putting those resources into direct support of small local businesses through its “Little City Gift Card” initiative.

$100,000 of the remaining funds are being dedicated to this purpose, and with the formal launch of the second year of the gift card initiative last weekend, sign ups have been even more brisk than the weather the last couple days.

According to Sarah Swinton-Nussbaum, marketing specialist of the City’s Office of Community Planning and Economic Development Services, there have been 731 sign-ups for the card in just its first days earlier this week, and so far 73 businesses have signed up to participate. That’s significantly ahead of last year’s numbers when the program was initially launched.

The card (actually, a webpage that is accessed online) functions like a debit card and the service is run by an affiliate of MasterCard, which assures its efficiency and accuracy. There is no plastic involved, per se.

But the savings are remarkable for those who sign up. It works like this: a customer goes on the City’s website and buys a gift card for themselves or someone else for up to $150. With the completion of that purchase, the customer is rewarded with a free card for half the total amount he or she bought.

The cards can then be used at any of the 73 local Falls Church businesses, including restaurants, that have registered with the program so far.

Swinton-Nussbaum said that even if the funds for the program are running the risk of being used up (a total of $100,000 was authorized for this season by the Economic Development Authority and City Council), the cards never expire, and more businesses are still able to sign up to participate.

She said she is hoping more will do just that.

Meanwhile, donations to the Falls Church Education Foundation are continuing to be pitched by the City’s daily events page. It reported this week that “Falls Church City Public School Social Workers use the FCEF Family Assistance Fund to ensure our economically disadvantaged students have what they need to thrive at school. With the surge in students that fall under this category, our social workers will spend close to $35,000 on gift cards for our families to use over the holidays. That’s $10,000 more than last year because of the increase in students and grocery costs.”