Rochester, N.Y., based Black Button Distilling, the city’s first grain-to-glass distillery since Prohibition, said it donated over 1,600 gallons of FDA approved hand sanitizer to the New York State Board of Elections in an effort to help maintain safe poll sites throughout the state for the upcoming presidential election on Nov. 3. Equivalent to over three million hand washes, Black Button Distilling’s contribution will be distributed at polling sites across the state.
At the height of the pandemic, Black Button Distilling halted production of craft spirits and converted their facility to address the more pressing community need of manufacturing ethanol-based hand sanitizer, with over 10,000 bottles donated to local schools, hospitals, small businesses, non-profits, grocery stores and more. “Our community needed us, and there was no question we were going to do all we could to help,” said Jason Barrett, President and Head Distiller.
A portion of the 8,200 bottles will go directly to New York City to accommodate the state’s largest voter sector, which, for the first time ever, is turning Madison Square Garden into a polling site to accommodate social distancing for the masses.