Vaughan distillery gets approvals, donations from flour mill to make hand sanitizers

Last Straw Distillery planning to produce 1,000 litres a week

Yorkregion.com
April 3, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

The Vaughan-based Last Straw Distillery is one of the latest businesses to transform its actual line of production to make much-needed hand sanitizers.

“The hand sanitizer approval actually came through on Sunday (March 29). I guess Health Canada was looking through the weekend to process all these applications,” said Mike Hook, one of the distillery’s founders.

“All the different government agencies that regulate us as a distillery ... have expedited the processes,” Hook added.

“Today is our first day selling actual hand-sanitizers,” Hook told Yorkregion.com on Monday, March 30.

So far, Last Straw Distillery is eyeing producing 1,000 litres per week, with the priority given to “special needs homes and nursing homes” as well as “a number of different first responders,”  including “Canada Border Services agencies and the people who have to continue to work in high-risk positions, but haven’t been able to track down sanitizer so far.”

After the distillery took to social media to announce its move to producing hand sanitizers, Hook said they started getting “calls from the police department, some hospitals and utilities and, you know, all these essential services who had no way to know (how) to get a source for hand sanitizers.”

Though Last Straw Distillery is prioritizing hand sanitizer sales to those deemed front-line workers during COVID-19, other customers who are interested in purchasing sanitizer are also invited to approach the distillery to buy, Hook added.

DONATIONS

The community was so responsive to this much-needed product, that the Vaughan-based k2MILLING -- an artisanal flour mill -- has donated two tons of flour to be converted into alcohol, a key ingredient of hand sanitizer, Hook said.

Even four Ontario-based craft brewers pitched in. “Kensington brewery, Lake Wilcox, Murray, and Saulter Street Brewery have all provided beer,” he added.

However, despite the distillery already being in the alcohol business, Hook is still looking “to buy as much alcohol as we can, in order to increase our capacity.”

Hook also called on other breweries if they have any excess beer that’s “just sitting around” to donate to Last Straw, so his distillery can ramp up its hand sanitizer production.