This week is the 8th anniversary of the date I purchased Que SeRaw SeRaw from Alicia Parnell. It's been quite an adventure, and many of you have been loyal supporters of this business since the beginning. Who would have guessed back in 2015 that we would have to close to shelter-in-place and then figure out how to operate in a global pandemic?
We had to get creative and come up with new ways to provide you with fresh, organic, plant-based food safely. With the exception of a few temporary closures, we're still operating. I'm so grateful for the PPP loans and various grants we received from San Mateo County and the State of California. These programs allowed us to stay in business and continue to employ our wonderful team.
As 2022 closed, I realized that without these subsidies in combination with rapidly rising costs of transportation, fresh produce, raw ingredients, packaging and more, we need to adjust our pricing to remain a viable business.
We are committed to continue using the highest quality, 100% organic ingredients, and to prepare dishes from scratch. It's a definitely a labor of love. The costs to produce with our high standards have risen dramatically, so we have to follow suit.
I deeply appreciate our customers and hope you'll continue to frequent Que SeRaw SeRaw. As a gesture to help offset the increase, we are setting up a loyalty program through Square where customers can earn discounts for every $100 spent on purchases. As soon as we have this set up, we will share the details.