Hangar 24 Craft Brewery in Redlands is known for giving back to the local community, most notably through its annual airshow and beer festival fundraiser.

Last week, the company expanded its reach.

At a VIP launch event at the brewery, Ben Cook, Hangar 24’s owner, operator and brewer, announced the first collaboration between the brewery and Food for the Hungry, an organization that seeks to end poverty among the world’s most vulnerable populations.

“This is the first time in our history that we have done a full-blown collaboration with a charity on a broad scale,” said Cook. “All our distributors are super pumped on it – most excited about giving meaning and purpose beyond just selling beer.”

A portion of the sales of Hangar 24’s winter release Chocolate Bomber will be donated to Food for the Hungry. Hangar 24 has committed to donate one meal for each six-pack, 22-ounce bottle or two pints of Chocolate Bomber sold.

Photos from Hangar 24’s Airfest

A porter with 8 percent alcohol, Chocolate Bomber is infused with chocolate malt, raw cocoa nibs (in which cacao beans have been roasted) and whole vanilla beans to give it a dessert-like quality. The public launch of Chocolate Bomber will be Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, with a 30 percent discount on beers sold at the brewery for military and veterans, said Christine Canepa, Hangar 24’s marketing director.

There’s history behind the logo and imagery for Chocolate Bomber, featuring planes dropping handkerchiefs wrapped around chocolate bars, Cook said.

“Essentially, right when World War II ended, East Berlin was living in extreme oppression and adversity,” he explained. “So these American pilots would fly over East Berlin and dump supplies and food. They would also literally put handkerchiefs on chocolate bars and when they would see kids they would push a whole box of chocolate bars out.”

The same kind of relief efforts continue today in other ravaged countries, Cook said.

“South Sudan is in the middle of civil war with 200,000 people living on the brink of starvation, literally living meal to meal,” he added. “Food for the Hungry is taking airplanes very similar to the ones in the image on our bottles and flying over (people) and pushing out food for them at altitude.”

Hangar 24 put the two stories together to create its branding and imagery for its collaboration with Food for the Hungry.

“This is such an exciting thing to be a part of,” said Doug Penick, Food for the Hungry’s creative director. “I really believe when small businesses start to root for a charity and make a difference in their community – and even beyond into the rest of the world – that is where real change will happen.”

Headquartered in Phoenix, Food for the Hungry works in 20 countries worldwide.

“Our organization is there providing meals,” Penick said, “often out by helicopter and food drop because our organization works in the hardest places on earth, places where people are denied access to things we define as human rights, healthcare, education, livelihood.

“They are most vulnerable and need the most aid,” he continued. “The sale of these bottles will help provide meals to people living in the most extreme poverty in the world.”

Penick said it’s a testimony to Hangar 24’s corporate culture that the company is concerned beyond itself.

“Just like those American pilots did in World War II, we want to show a better future is on the way for those in poverty,” Cook said. “We are blessed and want to be a blessing to others.”

For more information on Food for the Hungry go to fh.org.

Contact the writer: community@pe.com