State Grant Program to Help Businesses Affected by the Pandemic Unveiled in Matteson

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanley Fowler’s Chicago Heights-based business would distribute packages of seasoned breading for chicken and fish to some 80 grocery stores, mostly on the South Side and in the south suburbs. 

 “We would sell in a lot of small mom-and-pop stores,” Fowler said.

But many of the stores couldn’t survive the pandemic, and Fowler has seen his base of grocery customers shrink to roughly 25. “The pandemic really affected us.”