Shelter Point Distillery is supporting the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
It temporarily stopped its distilling operations and is now making medical-grade sanitizer.
Manager Jacob Wiebe says staff at the distillery are doing anything and everything they can to help.
“We’ve completely shut down our whisky production over the last couple weeks and we’ve been mass-producing hand sanitizer and all-purpose sanitizer,” Wiebe says. “Last week, we did a thousand litres, this week we did 4,000 litres. By the end of next week, we should be around 30,000 litres of hand sanitizer.”
The distillery revamped itself, going from single malt to sanitizer in just days.
The sanitizer is being put into 750-ml bottles and 20-litre containers.
Distillers from Shelter Point will be working double shifts over the weeks and months ahead to make enough sanitizer to supply as many health authorities, hospitals, medical centres, municipal and provincial services as possible.
Its number one priority is to ensure that first responders have enough supplies “so they can do their jobs and save lives.”
“Really, the front lines were getting it first. The medical clinics, the fire departments, the police stations. The people who aren’t able to stay home during this time. We wanted to make sure that they were able to be as safe as possible. They got the first opportunity for the hand sanitizer,” Wiebe adds.
The distillery has also supplied thousands of bottles to local communities in Campbell River and the Comox Valley.
As the current need is “extraordinary,” it’s doing the best it can to produce as much as possible.
Thousands of litres of grain neutral alcohol, containers and ingredients have been ordered which will allow staff to continue to make sanitizer to an approved World Health Organisation formulation.
To stay updated on the work Shelter Point Distillery is doing, visit its Facebook page.
