Daft Brewing used its resources, expertise and a tremendous amount of help from the community to provide hand sanitizer to people and businesses in need during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This work has been highlighted by the Whig, Queens School of Graduate Studies and featured in Queens Alumni. In total, Daft was able to produce 2163.97 L of hand sanitizer. Through 13 different batches, from March through July, we were able to produce all of our sanitizer on-site, using our own still and fermenting equipment.
At the onset of this project we decided to prioritize donations to the medical field and front line personnel. In total, over 250 individuals, groups and businesses received hand sanitizer from Daft. The response was overwhelming. We also received over 280 requests simply through our website and over 400 formal requests in total.
This project wasn’t cheap. Daft Brewing initially invested over $5,000 in the first three months of the pandemic, along with supplying the labor and equipment for getting the project off the ground. Following this, a successful GoFundMe campaign was launched which raised $2,483 from 38 generous donors! This money was used to ensure that we could continue manufacturing through the summer months.
The $2,483 was used to ensure continued production and the majority of the funds went toward materials such as glycol and isopropyl alcohol. The chart below shows approximately how the funds were used.
Lastly, we want to directly thank everyone – business and individuals, who helped make this possible. The truth is that none of this would have been possible without the constant support of the community at-large. Below is a list of some of the people/groups that jumped on-board immediately and ensured the success of this program.
- AFCO
- Anonymous donors
- Bread and Butter
- Brewculture
- Collinson Custom Building and Carpentry
- Don Brooks of Cooper Equipment
- Fielding Tire
- G.S. Manufacturing
- Herc Rentals
- KIMCO Steel
- KinsBrae Packaging
- Levac
- Noble
- Novelis
- Parade of Paints
- Silicrest Storage
- Tim Rows
- Top Shelf Distillers
- Tri-Art Manufacturing
- WESCO
We would also like to take a moment to specially thank Lindsay Waffle, who took on the responsibility of organizing the distribution and communications with all the groups that received hand sanitizer.
Thank-you for working with us to help the community!
– the gang
We were one of the businesses that benefitted from this wonderful endeavor and cannot thank you enough, your generosity and service to your community will forever be remembered and I will continue to tell everyone I can about how much we appreciate what you did for us and to go have a few at your brewery!
wolfe Island fire rescue benefited from this thank you for your generosity. chief Hawkins
Hi there.. we were another company that benefited from this and it was greatly appreciated, a lot of our drivers preferred this hand sanitizer rather than using the gel.. your hard work and dedication did not go unnoticed and should be commanded on this
Thank you so much
Kingston Transit Operators
Hummingbird Homecare Kingston would like to send a big thank you to Daft Brewing for the donation of sanitizer. Thank you for helping keep our community safe!