As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, hand sanitizer has become a scarce and valued commodity and its scarcity is impacting communities, healthcare systems and first responders’ ability to do their job of protecting the public.
Boardroom Spirits, a craft distillery located in Lansdale, announced in a news release that it has partnered with Sand Castle Winery of Erwinna, Bucks County, and other businesses such as Free Will Brewing of Perkasie to help meet the increasing demand.
The distillery at Boardroom Spirits in Lansdale is now producing large quantities of hand sanitizer for use in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The business gives away some of what it produces and also sells hand sanitizer in bulk.
Boardroom Spirits is FDA-licensed and has “ample capacity to produce ethanol, the key ingredient to make hand sanitizer following the World Health Organization’s approved formula that’s effective against COVID-19,” the company said.
“To help our community with an immediate need, Boardroom Spirits started supplying complimentary four-ounce hand sanitizer rations per person, per day on March 16,” the news release said.
Recognizing that the need for hand sanitizer is growing, Boardroom Spirits said it has since decided to do more to procure raw materials to increase its production capacity.
On Wednesday, it found a partner in Sand Castle Winery, which had 6,500 gallons of its wine transported to the distillery to help with that.
Sand Castle Winery Managing Partner Chad Sletten said the wine will be converted to pure alcohol for use in hand sanitizer creation.
When asked why the winery got involved with this initiative, Sletten said “philanthropy.”
“I knew we had the resources they needed,” he explained.
Chad Sletten, managing partner of Sand Castle Winery in Bucks County, helps deliver a donation of 6,500 gallons of wine to Boardroom Spirits in Lansdale, where it will be converted into pure ethanol for use in the production of desperately-needed hand sanitizer to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
With regard to its distillery in which the hand sanitizer is now being manufactured, Boardroom Spirits said it is meticulous in how it disinfects it, and that it uses an ozone generator proven to kill the novel coronavirus and other viruses on surfaces every night.
Boardroom Spirits said it is selling hand sanitizer in bulk “for as fair of a price as possible while paying bills, providing employment to the people making the product (and) supporting fellow businesses’ employees while continuing to provide the public with free sanitizer.”
Among the bulk size containers it is able to produce for the market are a 5-gallon pail, a 55-gallon drum and a 270-gallon tote, the news release said.
Hand sanitizer is stored at Boardroom Spirits in Lansdale, where much of the attention has gone from producing craft spirits to a product that is desperately needed by health care workers and others on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.