“Being nimble is the strongest adjective to describe just how we [the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild] are, and how I work,” Frances Cannon explains. “At any given point in time, we have to adjust.”
That dexterity has come in particularly handy this year, especially considering that Cannon is the first and only employee of the LA Guild. When the global pandemic first shut down much of the craft beer industry in the spring, and with no conclusive government input on how it planned to support local businesses, she said her organization didn’t initially push back. “We all felt like we needed to do our part in helping to curb the coronavirus,” she says.
But as time went on, Cannon saw that other counties across California were more quickly able to open up, even with limited capacity, as LA’s restrictions wore on. Calls poured in from beer businesses across Los Angeles, many of which stressed that they had mere weeks, if not days, left before being forced to close forever if the “radio silence” from local and state officials continued. “We wanted to understand why we were excluded,” she says, outlining the many desperate steps she and the rest of the Guild volunteers and members took for over a month before launching what they considered to be their Hail Mary: the #SaveLABrewers movement.
“That campaign was basically a last-ditch effort for us to be treated the same way as every other brewery,” Cannon says. Word and support spread faster than she anticipated: Cannon estimates over 5,000 emails were sent to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in the space of two weeks. After nationwide attention continued the barrage, she says they went from “trying to push for reopening” to securing a $30,000 small business grant that she calls “a lifeline” for the city’s craft beer community.
That lifeline has helped Los Angeles businesses stay afloat, but with the recent curfew and new stay-at-home orders, things are looking dire for local beer businesses once more. But with Cannon in their corner, L.A.’s breweries may just have a fighting chance.
Words,Beth Demmon