WASHINGTON — Michael Haith, owner and CEO of a Denver-based restaurant chain called Teriyaki Madness, is making money through food delivery and pickup and wants to borrow funds so he can expand.

Yet so far, a Federal Reserve lending program set up specifically for small and medium-sized businesses hasn’t been much help. He can’t find a bank that’s participating in the program, and he isn’t clear on a lot of the details.

“We are trying to figure it out, and trying to find a bank that is working with the government on this,” Haith said. “The guidance is pretty convoluted, and the banks seem a little wary.”

Haith’s experience underscores banks’ surprising lack of interest in the Fed’s Main Street Lending program. Fed officials say more than 200 banks have signed up to participate since the program began two weeks ago, a small slice of the nation’s roughly 5,000 lenders.

The sluggish start is in sharp contrast to the reaction that greeted the Treasury Department’s small business lending in the Paycheck Protection Program. That program, launched in early April, set off a frenzied response from millions of desperate small companies seeking a loan. The first $350 billion in PPP funding ran out in two weeks before being replenished.

The Fed has come under criticism from a congressional watchdog for quickly taking steps to ease the flow of credit for large corporations but doing little for smaller companies.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in prepared remarks released Monday that the PPP has apparently met the immediate credit needs of many small businesses.

“In the months ahead, Main Street loans may prove a valuable resource for firms that were in sound financial condition prior to the pandemic,” Powell said.

Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were to testify before a House committee Tuesday.

The Fed’s lending program is the central bank’s first attempt since the Great Depression to go beyond its typical financing for large banks and Wall Street firms and instead provide loans to businesses. Its goal is to help companies survive the pandemic by providing low-cost, five-year loans with no interest payments for the first year or principal payments for two years. Banks will make the loans, and the Fed will purchase 95 percent of the value, freeing up banks to do more lending.