Hand sanitizer serves a purpose beyond clean hands

You can sanitize your hands and provide meals for the hungry. That's a win-win scenario for everyone.

It's all due to the efforts of All Hands MN — a collaboration among Tattersall Distilling, Du Nord Craft Spirits and Brother Justus Whiskey Co. — who turned their distilling efforts initially to hand sanitizer in the early days of COVID-19.

They made the critical alcohol-based cleaner available to more than 2,000 local businesses and organizations where it was needed the most, including the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, nursing homes and hospitals.

Now they have broadened their efforts to help Second Harvest Heartland by joining with local grocers and distributor Johnson Brothers to fund 1 million meals through the sales of 60,000 bottles of their hand sanitizer. The product is available at Lunds & Byerly's, Cub Foods, Hy-Vee and Kowalski's stores statewide.

"As April wore on, we saw other areas of the community that were hit bad and needed help," said Jon Kreidler, founder of Tattersall in Minneapolis.

"We knew we would have tons of requests from individuals and didn't want to overwhelm what we were doing here," he said.

Once they had the bottles available — 60,000 in all — they moved on to the second phase of their plan: to get the product to the public, using grocery stores as the easy point of access.

Next on their agenda: to get hand sanitizer to restaurants and bars as they open, Kreidler said.

The hand sanitizer is available to the public in 32-ounce spray bottles, at a cost of $12.99. It contains 80 % ethyl alcohol, as recommended by the World Health Organization. For more info, see allhandsmn.org.

Ramadan Iftar meals

An Italian restaurant is offering a free Iftar meal to-go for people who are celebrating Ramadan.

On Thursday, May 21, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., Amore Uptown (1601 W. Lake St., Mpls., 612-823-0250, amoreuptown.com) will be giving away warm individually wrapped meals from its parking lot. Iftar is the sunset meal that ends the daily Ramadan fast.

The restaurant uses only certified halal chicken and beef. "We are encouraging those in need celebrating Ramadan to come by our parking lot for a family style meal offering that meets their needs during such uncertain times," said Tim McHugh, Amore general manager, in a statement.

Surly joins relief effort

Minnesota Central Kitchen — the joint effort of Minnesota's restaurant community, Second Harvest Heartland and Loaves & Fishes to prepare and distribute ready-to-eat meals for hunger relief — has a new partner.

Surly Brewing Co. (surlybrewing.com) has signed on to prepare 4,000 meals each week in its Minneapolis kitchen, bringing furloughed Surly cooks back to work and contributing to a growing local effort to employ chefs, rescue food and get meals to the people who need them.

Chowgirls Killer Catering was the first kitchen to kick off the project; it's been joined by Appetite for Change, Compass/Eurest, Sodexo and now Surly. Make a donation or learn more at 2harvest.org/mncentralkitchen. Find a meal at loavesandfishesmn.org.

Read full reviews and other restaurant news at startribune.com/dining.