Chapman's Ice Cream buys deep freezers for COVID-19 vaccine delivery
Canadian ice cream company Chapman’s has purchased two deep freezers capable of storing Pfizer’s new COVID-19 vaccine.
The company, which is headquartered in Markdale, Ontario, said it plans to make them available for their local Grey Bruce Health Unit to deliver doses of vaccine when they arrive.
“Since beginning of pandemic, we’ve had our eyes opened of how slowly our government, and the bureaucracy that runs everything, we’ve seen how slowly it works,” vice president Ashley Chapman told Daily Hive in a phone interview.
“By the time [we] get around to buying these freezers they’re all going to be gone.”
Ashley Chapman (Chapman’s Ice Cream/Submitted)
Managing a company that manufactures frozen foods means Chapman has a fairly wide network of experts in refrigeration and freezing technology. After a few phone calls he learned deep freezers capable of getting to -70 would take too long to build from scratch.
So he began looking for some to purchase, and sourced two from a seller in Ontario.
The units typically go for between $20,000 to $25,000 and the Pfizer vaccine’s release will only push the price higher, Chapman said.
He doesn’t care about being reimbursed for the freezers, he just wants to see people in the community get access to the vaccine.
“I’d much prefer the health units to have that money to buy PPE and whatever they need to support staff and nurses,” he said.
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The two freezers should arrive soon, and they’ll go to a yet undisclosed place in the Markdale area to receive vaccine.
The first health workers across Canada received their COVID-19 vaccines this week. The first vaccine deliveries went to urban areas with the necessary deep-freeze facilities already set up.
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