Meet Bob and Adele Bloch, who received an interest-free Covid Relief loan that helped their business stay afloat during the early months of the pandemic.
Bob and Adele had already retired from their first careers — Bob had been a banker with the Community Bank of San Joaquin and Adele was a school teacher. They wanted to stay active and involved with their community and supplement their retirement income, so in 2013 they opened a Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt franchise in Tracy, where they live.
The couple had never run a business before, so they faced a steep learning curve, with both of them putting in many long days during those early years. But the shop has done well, and it quickly became one of the most successful Menchie’s franchises in California and nationwide. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, which put everything at risk.
To protect their own health and that of the public, Bob and Adele closed their shop as soon as shelter-in-place orders went into effect. But they still had to pay rent, insurance, and utilities, and there was no revenue coming in. They applied for pandemic assistance loans from the Small Business Administration, but encountered many bureaucratic delays. The bills continued to mount.
This is when Bob and Adele turned to Hebrew Free Loan. Within a matter of days, they received an interest-free Covid Relief loan to cover their business expenses until they could either reopen the store or get additional help from the SBA.
“We don’t know what we would have done without the assistance. We thank Hebrew Free Loans for their generous support and quick response in our time of need. We’re so grateful to everyone who’s donated over the years, to make this possible.”
Over two years later, the store is open and thriving again, and Bob and Adele spend much of their time giving back to the community, paying forward the help they received. They do fundraisers for local schools, sports teams, congregations, and school clubs, saying yes to any school that asks. Almost every weekend, and many days after school, you’ll find the two of them setting up their frozen yogurt stand outside a school or on the sidelines of a football or baseball field, where they donate back 30% of all sales. Bob and Adele’s shop does more fundraisers in their community than any other Menchie’s frozen yogurt store in the country.
Because they received our loan to keep their shop going during the pandemic, Bob and Adele are enriching the lives of hundreds of young people. This is what we mean when we say that the effects of our loans multiply, like ripples spreading out across the surface of a lake. May Bob and Adele’s shop enjoy many years of success, so that the impact continue to ripple out in ever-widening circles.
