DES MOINES, Iowa — Longtime voice in the Biden-Harris cabinet on behalf of the nation's 34 million small businesses and current Small Business Association (SBA) Administrator, Isabel Casillas Guzman, travelled to Iowa Friday to meet with local leaders and those affected by the devastating tornadoes and floods of this year.
"Alongside FEMA, we're here, oftentimes, from day one, helping support the disaster recovery centers and setting up business recovery centers so that our businesses can recover, but not only them, the employees and the consumers that they depend on, so doing homeowners assistance and renters assistance," Guzman said. "So I'm here in Iowa to check in on the communities who have been impacted by the series of flooding and tornadoes that they experienced."
In the morning, Guzman visited with small businesses and home owners affected by disasters discussing how SBA resources have been and can be helpful.
This included a visit to the SBA’s new Greenfield Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) that opened earlier this month with intentions of helping residents and business owners.
Guzman wanted to see how easy it was for Iowans to receive the assistance they needed so she could she can help communities in the future.
"Some of the businesses have been able to access physical disaster loans, being able to rebuild what was devastated by the floods, and others need that economic injury, and so that's a loan that allows them to recover some of the disruption in their revenues as a result of this disaster," Guzman said.
The afternoon consisted of a roundtable discussion about recovery efforts with various stakeholders, and then the day concluded with a visit to the Des Moines-based BLK & Bold Specialty Beverages, the first Black-owned nationally distributed coffee company.
BLK & Bold was especially cited by Guzman as a company that was able to leverage SBA resources to grow into the success it is today.
"There's about $200 million annually that we invest in small businesses in Iowa, whether that's through our loan programs, through great financial institutions, or through investments, through our great investors that are licensed by the SBA," she said.