Maui County is assisting local ranchers and small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic by buying up local beef and continuing to offer grants to small businesses.

During his daily news conference Wednesday afternoon, Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino said the county has committed more than $200,000 of federal CARES Act funding to assist ranchers and people in need by purchasing beef from independent ranchers in the county and then distributing it.

DeCoite’s Packing House will process the beef into 1,000 pounds of hamburger per week, Victorino said.

The meat will be given to nonprofit Feed My Sheep, which will then distribute it to individuals, nonprofit agencies and community feeding programs, Victorino said.

He thanked Joyce Kawakami, CEO of Feed My Sheep, and Brendan Balthazar, owner of Diamond B Ranch, for their collaboration on the project. Victorino said ranchers who want to participate can call Balthazar at 281-1723.

“With this pandemic and a lot of things being shut down, cattle was really suffering,” Balthazar said during the news conference.

He said that ranchers had no where to go and that the program will help ranchers as well as the public.

The partnership may run through the end of November. It is being assisted by the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Kahului Extension Office.

On Tuesday, Victorino announced that $3 million more will be dedicated to the Kokua Maui County Small Business Recovery & Relief Fund to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Total funds allocated to the program now is $6 million.

There were 557 grants awarded in the first disbursement of $3 million. In that round, nearly $96,000 was awarded to 19 Molokai businesses. The rest went to Maui business, program officials said. The initial funding was given out in three weeks.

The money can be used for reimbursable business expenses, such as rent/lease and utility payments and COVID-19-related safety precautions. The maximum award is $7,500.

With the second infusion of $3 million, qualifications have been expanded for those seeking a grant to include:

• Previous applicants with $2 million or less in annual gross revenue. They automatically will be reconsidered and will not need to reapply.

• Recipients of Maui Chamber of Commerce Micro Business Loans can now apply for a maximum of $3,750. Previously, those businesses were not eligible to apply.

Businesses eligible to apply must:

• Have a physical commercial/industrial business location within the county.

• Have an active registered trade name with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

• Have a current General Excise Tax license as proof of registration for doing business in Hawaii.

• Have been established prior to March 20, 2019, which should be reflected on the GET license.

• Be open for business at time of application.

The fund is a county partnership with local federal credit unions to launch a recovery and relief fund using CARES Act dollars to help small business, a news release said. Small businesses do not need to be credit union members to apply for grants. The credit unions that are part of the implementation of the program are Maui County FCU, Maui FCU, Valley Isle Community FCU, Kahului FCU, Wailuku FCU and Maui Teachers FCU.

For more information, go to mauinuistrong.net/kokua-maui-county or call 270-5745.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.