ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Anyone who has gone out to dinner knows — the restaurant industry is struggling. The federal government came up with the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to help. By law, the plan prioritized certain restaurant owners, but News10NBC just found out thousands of those owners lost the money they were promised and they lost it because of who they are. The plan said everyone could apply in early May, but Congress said the first applications processed by the U.S. Small Business Administration had to be from restaurants owned by women, veterans and minorities. A handful of restaurant owners in Texas and Tennessee sued, and because the federal courts hearing the cases agreed that using gender and race was improper, thousands of restaurant owners lost the money they were promised.