North Park Vons sold to LA investor

CBRE announced the sale of a Vons grocery store in San Diego to a Los Angeles-based private investor for $27.7 million on Wednesday, May 6.

Located at 4145 30th Street in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, the 44,000 square-foot building sits one half-mile west of I-805, a major freeway that connects the area to the rest of San Diego County. Vons is on a current lease that runs through June of 2039.

Feeding San Diego purchases unusual amount of food

Feeding San Diego has purchased 125 truckloads of food since March 14 to meet a countywide surge in demand due to the COVID-19 crisis. The organization normally purchases approximately 24 truckloads in an entire year.

The increased reliance on purchased food is helping the organization to meet the needs of the nearly one out of every eight San Diegans struggling with hunger prior to the COVID-19 crisis, but also thousands of newly affected residents as San Diego’s unemployment rate reaches 25%. The increased demand comes at a time when Feeding San Diego has experienced a 30% decline in donations from local grocery stores due to high consumer demand.

“We are experiencing a tremendous surge in people facing hunger across San Diego County right now, with an estimated 40% facing food insecurity for the first time,” said Vince Hall, CEO of Feeding San Diego. “The wave of children, families and seniors in need isn’t slowing down — and neither are we because no San Diegan should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. We are grateful to the thousands of San Diegans who have generously donated to Feeding San Diego during this unprecedented crisis. Our donors from across this generous community make our work possible every day.”

Feeding San Diego offers no-touch, drive-through food assistance at hundreds of sites throughout San Diego County. The organization’s food finder map has become a valuable resource to the community and can be found at: feedingsandiego.org/find-food.

Community colleges’ fall term online

Fall semester classes across the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) will be offered primarily through online and distance education. The decision was announced last week by SDCCD Chancellor Constance M. Carroll in an email to the district’s 5,000 employees. The district’s 100,000 students also are being informed.

Chancellor Carroll offered that the district, which includes San Diego City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges and San Diego Continuing Education, will make an effort to allow some exceptions for classes such as science, clinical and career-technical labs, classes for first responders, and others which are difficult to offer completely online. In those cases, however, social distancing and other health protocols would need to be closely followed.

Chancellor Carroll said it was important to make the decision about modality for the fall semester early enough to allow the faculty and the campuses to prepare. She also announced that the district and the campuses would be providing additional professional development to ensure the highest quality of instruction and student support during this online phase.

The district has also begun discussions regarding a phased-in approach that would determine when employees might return to work. However, as with classes, the work environment would need to be safe for employees.

The SDCCD converted over 5,000 classes to all-online instruction on March 23. Since then, it has also announced that summer classes will be held online due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, and that commencement ceremonies will be conducted virtually in mid-July. Thousands of district students have been provided with laptops, wifi hubs, and other equipment to ensure they can continue their studies. In addition, hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and emergency grants have been secured to assist students — many of whom have lost jobs.

The district estimates it has incurred approximately $4 million in unanticipated costs thus far due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bankers Hill resident named VP of finance and treasury at Mission Fed

Mission Federal Credit Union, San Diego’s largest member-owned, not-for-profit, full-service financial institution exclusively serving San Diego County, has appointed Eric Larson as its new Vice President – Finance and Treasury.

Larson most recently held roles as Chief Financial Officer of CalPrivate Bank and its holding company, Private Bancorp of America, Inc. from 2010 until 2019. Prior to his tenure at CalPrivate, Mr. Larson was employed at San Diego National Bank from 1985 until 2009, the last twelve years as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Larson graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance.

“Eric brings a very deep background in Finance & Treasury to Mission Fed, said Doug Wright, Chief Financial Officer at Mission Fed, “Both as CFO of San Diego National Bank and CFO for Cal Private Bank, Eric did an outstanding job of overseeing balance sheet management, interest rate risk, liquidity, and investment functions for the organization. We are honored to welcome him to the Mission Fed team.”

Oral hygiene kits being donated to seniors

With seniors ’sheltering in place” and potentially doing so for many more months to come, the Gary & Mary West Senior Dental Center is making sure vulnerable San Diego seniors have the items they need to keep up their health and oral hygiene during this time.

The organization is in the process of preparing and delivering 5,000 Home Care Oral Hygiene Kits for vulnerable seniors in San Diego County. Each kit contains much needed dental and health care items to help seniors maintain their oral and overall health during these challenging times. Examples include reusable tote bag, toothpaste, toothbrush, mouth rinse, dental floss, soap, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, paper towels, and oral health educational materials for seniors. The kits will be delivered via Serving Seniors home delivered meal service that reaches this vulnerable population on a daily basis throughout the county. The distribution has begun and will continue to as long as the kits are available.

They say “oral hygiene is the gateway to health,” and at this time especially we should be keeping our seniors’ health top priority as they build a defense against a potential Covid-19 infection. In fact, the stats are alarming: Nearly 1 in 5 seniors over the age of 65 have no teeth, 2 in 3 have gum disease, and 1 in 5 have untreated cavities.

The foundation is seeking donations to complete more kits and will match donations up to $10,000. $5 provides one kit for a senior. Visit seniordentalcenter.org to donate.

One-month-old giraffe calf named

On Mother’s Day, a one-month-old giraffe calf at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park received her name after more than 18,000 fans cast their ballots in a week-long online voting campaign. Voters were asked to choose between two names—Zeena and Zahara—and by popular vote, the female youngster will now be called Zahara (pronounced za haa rah), which is derived from Arabic origins.

The calf was born April 4 to first-time mom Zawadi (pronounced zza whaa dee), and was introduced to the other members of the herd 2 weeks later. Visitors to the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park websites will now have the opportunity to watch Zahara on Giraffe Cam presented by Fiesta, as she explores her new home and interacts with the diverse wildlife that shares the habitat. Zahara is a healthy calf with terrific vitality and a highly relaxed demeanor, wildlife care specialists said.

“This calf is normally so very calm and collected,” said Matt Galvin, lead wildlife care specialist at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. “Not much bothers her. She is usually content to nap in the shade while the adults browse nearby, but we’ve noticed on occasion, she does get overly excited and zooms through the savanna.”