Kirklees Together

A Holmfirth gin distiller is full of community spirit after putting the business on hold to make hand sanitiser for frontline social carers in Kirklees.

How did they do it?

Divine Gin has used its distillery in Holmfirth to make 70 litres of hand sanitiser for frontline Kirklees Council workers as well as staff at their local Co-op.

We will give the sanitiser to our frontline social care staff who are still out in communities visiting and helping the most vulnerable people.

Divine Gin was established by husband and wife team Ray and Rachel Woolhead in 2014. They work from their distillery in the hills at New Mill, above Holmfirth, where they also made the sanitiser.

They wanted to do their bit to help people working on the frontline in communities in Kirklees.

Councillor Shabir Pandor, Leader of Kirklees Council, said:

“These are clearly very challenging and difficult times for everyone, but particularly the key workers who are still out in communities helping the people who need us.

I’m so proud of our communities and residents in Kirklees for the amazing togetherness we’ve all shown during this time of crisis.

I’m so grateful to Ray and Rachel for putting their gin making on hold and doing something so selfless to help our staff stay safe as they continue to care for the most vulnerable people.

It’s heart-warming gestures like this that are so important when we’re faced with such unprecedented circumstances. Thank you to Ray and Rachel and to everyone else across the borough doing their bit to help others through this.”

Ray said:

“We’re a small distillery but very keen to contribute what we can to help those working on the frontline in our towns and villages during this crisis. As a distillery we are in a good position to be able to switch our operations to make hand sanitiser, which as we all know, has become in short supply. We are conscious that there may be sectors of our community who are out there helping our families, our friends, our neighbours, day in day out, who may not be at the top of the list to receive this basic provision.

That’s why we decided to make and donate this hand sanitiser free of charge to frontline staff from our local Kirklees Council and also to the staff serving people at our local Co-op in Holmfirth. We’re not charging for this because we believe that it’s at times like this that we all have to come together and do what we can for each other to get through this situation.”

We are seeing an amazing community response to the Coronavirus pandemic where people have gone above and beyond to help those in need.  We are keen to highlight the impact of people’s kind and generous actions through a Local Heroes campaign. We will be publicising how you can nominate people later this week.

More information 

• Latest coronavirus updates from Kirklees Council
• Coronavirus help and advice from the Government and NHS

Visit Divine Gin online at www.divinegin.com