A local distillery has made a major change to their production to keep running during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thomas Steinhart says his Steinhart Distillery has started producing hand sanitizer.
Steinhart tells The Hawk, when it became obvious how bad COVID-19 might get, he didn’t know how he, or his five employees, would get by; then they realized they could make something people really needed.
“We cannot keep up, it’s impossible,” he says. “We started production Tuesday [Mar. 17]. By Friday [Mar. 20] we had 45,000 bottles made and sold.”
Steinhart says that’s about equal to half a year of alcohol sales.
He says they’re donating bottles too; he’s committed one to the food bank for every five sold.
“I figure, people who have money, they can buy it,” he says. “People who don’t have money to buy food, they cannot buy it, so they should get it for free.”
Steinhart says he’s at work from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week trying to meet demand.
