Granville Family Donates Locally Grown Corn to Give Area Schools Hand Sanitizer
Luke and Megan Holly of rural Granville recently sold a semi-load of their locally grown corn to Marquis Energy in Hennepin.
Instead of obtaining the profits, The Holly family asked that payment be transferred into a hand sanitizer donation. Their corn product produced 360-gallons of hand sanitizer, which the family kindly donated to several area schools.
“As I was hauling in the last of our 2019 corn crop May/June, I was intrigued about the new product, Marquis XT, the Hennepin plant was producing,” Luke said. “I spoke with Lester Smith at Marquis to inquire about how much hand sanitizer could be made with a semi load of grain. Turns out 360 gallons could be manufactured.”
Luke said with COVID fears on everyone’s minds, especially with schools already preparing for fall, his family decided to split the donation up to five area schools.
“It was something we could do to help the schools not only financially, but more importantly we thought of all of the little and big hands and in turn bodies that this would help to protect against COVID,” he said.
One other interesting piece is that the Holly family farms for St. Bede Academy and Illinois Valley Community College, so some of the corn produced on their land went into making the hand sanitizer that they will be able to provide to their students.
“It’s an interesting circle of locally-grown corn, locally-produced hand sanitizer and used by local students,” Luke said. “Sounds like a win, win to me. We’d like to thank the Marquis team members for the help in manufacturing and distribution to the area schools.”
The Holly family hauls about 95% of the corn they produce to the Marquis.
Source: Putnam County Record
 |
| Image credit: Putnam County Record |
“As I was hauling in the last of our 2019 corn crop May/June, I was intrigued about the new product, Marquis XT, the Hennepin plant was producing,” Luke said. “I spoke with Lester Smith at Marquis to inquire about how much hand sanitizer could be made with a semi load of grain. Turns out 360 gallons could be manufactured.”
Luke said with COVID fears on everyone’s minds, especially with schools already preparing for fall, his family decided to split the donation up to five area schools.
“It was something we could do to help the schools not only financially, but more importantly we thought of all of the little and big hands and in turn bodies that this would help to protect against COVID,” he said.
One other interesting piece is that the Holly family farms for St. Bede Academy and Illinois Valley Community College, so some of the corn produced on their land went into making the hand sanitizer that they will be able to provide to their students.
“It’s an interesting circle of locally-grown corn, locally-produced hand sanitizer and used by local students,” Luke said. “Sounds like a win, win to me. We’d like to thank the Marquis team members for the help in manufacturing and distribution to the area schools.”
The Holly family hauls about 95% of the corn they produce to the Marquis.
Source: Putnam County Record