KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas and J. Rieger Distillery President Andy Rieger and one of many pallets of facemasks donated today by the East Bottoms based Distillery.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic back in March, the J. Rieger Distillery made a quick business pivot and began producing hand sanitizer for public and private use. Today, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas stopped by the Distillery in the Historic Electric Park neighborhood in the East Bottoms to receive a donation of 400,000 face masks secured by the distillery and Michigan based Supply Line International  Medical (SLI) in order to further prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Kansas City.

Mayor Quinton Lucas and Andy Rieger chat discuss how the Kansas City business community has stepped up DURING the COVID-19 pandemic flanked by a stack of face masks and hand sanitizer.

  “I want to thank J. Rieger and Company, you all, as we can see to our right, stepped up with our first responders with hand sanitizer, making sure our police, fire and so many others had support back in March, and right now, with a donation of over 400,000 masks, you’re making sure our
community and those in need, have access to masks and can get them,”
Mayor Lucas said.

According to Distillery President Andy Rieger, the donation comes at a key time in the city’s history and is necessary in getting things back
to normal as quickly as possible. “We’re deeply invested in our home
town and we wanted to use our resources to do what we can for our
community”, Rieger said.

The masks will be distributed through the city’s Health Department and available by calling the Mayor’s office or the 311-Action Center. Masks will also be distributed to area hospitals, government offices, public
transportation entities like RideKC, city employees, schools and citizens in need, including the area’s homeless and transient population.

And an elbow bump seals the deal!