In The Heartland One Sweet Match

U.S. Sugar Partners With Sugar Sands Distillery to Make Hand Sanitizer

- MARY TOOTHMAN

AS UNPRECEDENTED TIMES call for unexpected needs, an affiliation has developed between two companies that’s turning liquor into hand sanitizer.

As pandemic-related concerns highlight the need to be cautious about germs, U.S. Sugar has collaborated with Sugar Sands Distillery in Lake Placid, Florida, to produce hand sanitizer. It’s being distributed in the Glades communities to help stop the spread of the COVID-19.

The company has announced it is providing up to 1,200 units of hand sanitizer to vulnerable members of the local communities and its employees in the workplace. The employees are part of the nation’s critical infrastructure of harvesting and processing food, according to recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security guidelines.

The company will provide hand sanitizer to senior centers in LaBelle, Clewiston, Belle Glade and Pahokee. The hand sanitizer was made with the use of sugarcane molasses to distill alcohol in the product.

“In times of crisis, you can always count on the resourcefulness of farmers to help solve problems as they arise,” says Judy Sanchez, spokesperson for U.S. Sugar.