Help Jersey Spirits get State delivery privileges'

Jersey Spirits Distilling Co is a local craft distillery that manufactures spirits on site in Fairfield, NJ since 2015. We also operate a Tasting Room where people can come and taste our spirits, have a craft cocktail, participate in a facility tour and purchase bottles. These operations account for a good portion of our overall business. Our tasting room runs just like any bar or restaurant so we are members of the Hospitality Industry. Our manufacturing provides considerable support to local and regional farms where we source our grains, fruits and produce to create our products. Fairfield has been a great home for our Distillery and our customers are awesome! We make Bourbon, Whiskey, Rum, Gin, Vodka, Jersey Hooch and other specialty spirits. The Pandemic has been pretty tough on all of our operations. We have managed to keep our staff and stay open so far throughout the entire shutdown periods which seem to endlessly continue. We supported the worldwide shortage and made ethanol for sanitizer during last Spring. We chose to do our part and donated every drop we made to the US Army, hospitals, statewide police, statewide fire, rescue squads, and of course our customers & all the local services departments in Fairfield. Like many businesses, this has all been extremely challenging and even costly to retool our processes and operations. Months of closure to our tasting room, restrictions, lockdowns, etc. have all taken their toll on us as both a manufacturer and Tasting Room. We have lost or minimized our connection to customers that typically occur in our tasting room with the loss of use and restrictions as well as many customers locking down - which we support completely. During these winter months, it is especially harder when factoring in competing with the weather and seeing our outdoor area closed as well as many people's hesitancy to come indoors. We do practice very safe Covid protocols yet that is not enough to expand our access to customers who are staying away from any public areas and establishments. We would utilize funds raised to lobby our Legislature to gain delivery for Craft Distilleries. We would also use the funds to hire delivery personnel and expand our operation to include delivery services. We have been trying  to get access to home delivery which every license holder in NJ enjoys while Craft Distilleries in New Jersey are outright and specifically denied by our Legislature and Governor. Ultimately they are discriminating against us for almost a full year during Covid while other craft beverage producers, bars, restaurants and others  have been taken care of through Executive Orders and Legislation. These discriminations have been very harmful to operations such as ours. We continue to attempt obtaining these rights through discussions and bills in the Legislature however, we have been shut down 3 times by the Governor himself and Legislature. Our current fourth attempt is completely ignored by our Legislature except for s scant few that have understood our position. These few are not enough and we need real support to provide us these deserved rights that should not be interfered upon. Other alcohol industry peers are assisting their survival by accessing their customer base with these privilege's while Distilleries flounder without them and continue to have limited connection to people who are already not leave their houses in the face of the Pandemic. Restrictions and orders further keep people home and severely limit their outings which cause a disconnect that could be cured with delivery just like our peers or even access to groceries we have all seen expand exponentially during the Pandemic. We intend to use some funds to consult and acquire expert help in pushing this through our Legislature and obtaining these rights for us and of course all of the Craft Distilleries in New Jersey.