Spirit of York, a gin distillery in Toronto's Distillery District, recently announced that their operation would be dedicating production to hand sanitizer that meets WHO standards, rather than botanical booze.

Sanitizer is vital for those who need to protect their immune systems during the coronavirus pandemic, but panic buying has left many without.

In light of this, a handful of local distillers have stepped up to produce sanitizer for those in need.

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Spirit of York Hand Sanitizer 💦⁣ Almost ready to go! Starting March 19, @SpiritofYork Hand Sanitizer will be available at the distillery for $2.95 (limit of 2 per customer) or absolutely FREE for those who are unable to afford it and to those who are over the age of 65. ALL PROCEEDS from our hand sanitizers will go to local food banks in our community. ⁣ ⁣ Our sanitizer has been carefully crafted on-site at our production facility, following the strict guidelines of the World Health Organization. In light of #COVID19, hand sanitizer has become a scarce commodity throughout the Greater Toronto Area and using the resources we have -- we figured this was the best way to give back and support our community in need. ⁣ ⁣ Thank you to everyone for your incredible support on this. When this is all over, we'll all be stronger because of it. We look forward to when we get to host you again at our distillery. In the meantime, keep your spirits high!⁣ ⁣ - Spirit of York team

A post shared by SPIRIT OF YORK (@spiritofyork) on Mar 17, 2020 at 3:47pm PDT

The Spirit of York sanitizer will be available on March 19 for $2.95 with a limit of two per customer, or free to those in need and those who are over 65.

All proceeds will go to local food banks.

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They're not pretty but they work. We're bottling up some 65% alcohol for disinfecting. Any essential service individual or organization who needs some, reach out, we'll have 1,000+ bottles for tomorrow, on us. ⁠ ⁠ We couldn't source any spray nozzles in time, but if you have one it should screw right on. ⁠ ⁠ We also found some more aloe so Batch 2 of hand sanitizer is here for anyone in need, also on us.⁠ ⁠ If you are in need please reach out to us - ⁠ ⁠ info@dillons.ca ⁠ ⁠ or call ⁠ ⁠ 905.563.3030 to make arrangements.⁠

A post shared by @ dillonsdistills on Mar 17, 2020 at 11:22am PDT

Around the same time, Dillon's, another reputed gin maker located about an hour outside Toronto, announced they'd be producing about a 1,000 bottles of 65% alcohol for disinfecting, offering them for free to "any essential service individual or organization."

Previous to this, Dillon's had already produced a small batch of hand sanitizer out of 95% grape ethanol, aloe vera juice and peach bitters that every visitor to the distillery was free to take home.

They've since upped their game on another batch currently available to anyone in need.

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To our amazing and supportive community, we know certain resources are sparse right now. We, along with the entire distilling community, want to do what we can to help during this time. At the distillery, we have bottles of alcohol based sanitizer we are happy to provide to those in need and will continue to do what we can to help. ♥️

A post shared by Reid's Distillery (@reidsdistillery) on Mar 17, 2020 at 3:55pm PDT

Reid's Distillery, another local Toronto gin distillery, has also made their own 70% ABV spray sanitizer currently available to those in need. You can also still pick up their booze or get it delivered through Foodora.

"We're happy to do anything we can to help our community. As a Distillery, we're lucky to have access to alcohol which can be used as a sanitizer," says Jacqueline Reid. "We will be distributing sanitizing spray free of charge to anybody in need for as long as we have the resources."

"We've seen a large demand and we're asking people not to hoard and be conscious of the immunocompromised communities. The Toronto community and the craft distilling community are strong and it's great to see them coming together."