PENDLETON — Oregon Grain Growers is lending a hand in the community’s fight against COVID-19 by trying to help you keep yours clean.

Like other booze producers around the country, the Pendleton distillery and restaurant has ceased all production of booze and completed production Wednesday of 125 gallons of hand sanitizer that will be distributed for free to local nursing homes, doctor’s offices and first responders.

“I sleep better at night making hand sanitizer than alcohol right now,” said Rodney Bullington, who owns the distillery with his wife, Kelli.

Those in the greatest need of hand sanitizer and at the greatest risk of being exposed to COVID-19 are being prioritized first, and bottles are being sent to locations from La Grande to Heppner. After those locations have the supplies they need, Bullington said leftover bottles will be available for free to the public.

However, once word got out that the distillery was getting in the hand sanitizer business, calls began flooding in daily with people and businesses inquiring about purchasing some. Though there’s certainly the demand to do so, the Bullingtons are refusing to make a profit of their sudden commodity.

“I’m not a war profiteer,” Bullington said, laughing.

As the coronavirus pandemic escalated around the country in March, supplies of hand sanitizer dwindled and became harder and harder to find. With distilleries wanting to help out and already having mass quantities of ethanol, the product’s most common ingredient, the Food and Drug Administration loosened its guidelines for manufacturing the sanitary gel.

The FDA also provided a simple recipe, which calls for roughly 80% ethanol, 18% water, 1.5% glycerol and 0.5% hydrogen peroxide.

Once Bullington heard of other distilleries converting their production and the loosened guidelines, he and his staff began tracking down the needed ingredients. The ethanol and water were already on hand, and the Pendleton-based general contractor Neiderwerks helped by picking up hydrogen peroxide for them from the Safeway pharmacy, but locating glycerol proved to be a challenge.

After finding a supplier in the Midwest to order from, it took over a week until the shipment finally arrived on Saturday and production began on a 125-gallon batch of hand sanitizer.

Bullington had wanted to include a hint of mint oil in the hand sanitizer recipe for some “aromatherapy,” but decided against it because of people who may be allergic to the plant.

The batch was ready to go Wednesday. Oregon Grain Growers employees Shelby McQuinn and John Landreth began filling nearly 1,000 4-ounce squeeze bottles of hand sanitizer, and staff will be delivering them to the facilities they’ve coordinated with later this week.

“Rodney and Kelli have been amazing,” McQuinn said while bottling the sanitizer Wednesday. “They’ve taken great care of us, and it’s just awesome to work for a place that cares about the community like this.”

Like every other restaurant in the state, Oregon Grain Growers is only offering takeout and facing the economic uncertainty that lies ahead because of the pandemic. Yet, so far the distillery has been able to keep its staff employed and rally together to provide their community with an essential need.

The 125-gallon batch of hand sanitizer produced Wednesday is the only definitive one the distillery has planned. But Bullington said they will wait to see what needs remain after distributing it and how long the pandemic lasts, and didn’t rule out making more in the future.

“We just love Pendleton and want to support it,” Bullington said. “It’s that civic duty and pride. We want to help anyway we can.”