Photo: Okanagan Spirits

Okanagan Spirits Master Distiller Peter Von Hahn producing sanitizer.

A local distillery has been hard at work making hand sanitizer free of charge for those most at risk in the community, bottling and delivering over 6,000 bottles. And now they're asking the public for a bit of help.

Hand sanitizer has become a hot commodity as the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, making it difficult for those most at risk in the community to get their hands on it.

As a result, Okanagan Spirits has switched their production from whisky, gin and other tasty beverages to hand sanitizer, and they've been donating it to local healthcare staff, firefighters, paramedics, police, care homes, homeless shelters, women’s shelters and more. But the costs have been adding up for the local company.

“Our cost to produce each litre of craft alcohol that goes into this hand/surface sanitizer is $12/litre,” the company wrote on social media.

“Then, the federal government charges us another $12.37/litre in excise tax (Yes, we have petitioned the government to do the right thing and waive this). So the challenge for us is that we are fighting COVID-19 on many fronts. We give a litre away and it costs us $24.37 and that is before bottling costs!”

The company says they strongly believe it is not the time to “monetize health,” and they've turned down offers of payment from many of the organizations they've donated the sanitizer to.

On Saturday, the Kelowna Professional Firefighters Association posted a thank you to Okanagan Spirits for their sanitizer donation, adding that several other local fire departments have also received donations.

“It is local businesses like this that step up in our time of need,” the firefighters' union posted.

To keep their sanitizer flowing, Okanagan Spirits has reached out to the community asking for help, by purchasing a bottle of their award-winning whiskies, gins, vodkas, absinthe, or fruit liqueurs.

“Even though our production these past couple weeks has been 24/7 hand/surface sanitizer, we do have many delicious (drinkable) products stocked on the shelves and we continue to be open for business at our two locations,” the company posted, adding that the sanitizer they're producing is definitely not drinkable.

Those looking to get their hands on a bottle can swing by their Vernon or Kelowna stores, or get some delivered online.