The fund comes from the employee relief fund and restaurant relief fund created during the pandemic. Author: Will Ujek, Megan Gallagher Published: 1:28 AM EDT July 2, 2021 Updated: 1:28 AM EDT July 2, 2021 CLEVELAND — The restaurant industry is the second-largest employer in the United States, as well as the second-largest in Ohio. It was the first industry to be shut down in the pandemic, and the last to open up again. When it went down, the rest of the country came with it. "You have to go all the way back, all the way, to almost the World Wars or the Great Depression to find anything like what happened here," John Barker, President and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant Association, says.