Daily Business Report-April 3, 2018
The BrightSide Produce program distributes fresh fruits and vegetables to small food stores and liquor stores in underserved communities. (Credit: San Diego State University)
San Diego State’s BrightSide Produce:
A Lesson in Business and Humanity
By Cory Marshall |SDSU
The idea is simple. The problem is much more complex. Students at San Diego State University, guided by Iana Castro, associate professor of marketing in SDSU’s Fowler College of Business, are working to tackle food insecurity in low-income communities — one produce delivery at a time.
It’s been less than a year since Castro started BrightSide Produce at SDSU. Based on a model developed in 2014 at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, the program distributes fresh fruits and vegetables to small food stores and liquor stores in underserved communities. This includes shops located in food deserts, where residents do not have access to supermarkets.
“The BrightSide Produce program was developed as a direct response to two needs: a need for an innovative, pedagogical approach that could elevate the student experience while preparing students for the workplace; and a need to develop a solution to a pressing issue that is affecting communities nationwide, including many San Diego communities,” said Castro.
BrightSide, which operates as a nonprofit, acts as the workaround for small shops that can’t afford to purchase the minimum order requirement from produce distribution companies. BrightSide buys the produce directly from produce distributors and then delivers the produce to participating stores. It’s a solution that allows small business owners to successfully and profitably stock produce.
The other part of the program centers on the BrightSide Produce Buyer’s Club, where members sign up for produce packages, and then pick up their produce at SDSU’s farmers market held every Thursday on campus. Proceeds from the Buyer’s Club help fund deliveries to BrightSide stores.
Students enrolled in Castro’s upper division marketing class, Marketing and Sales for Social Impact, help run the nonprofit. They are given positions within functional teams in BrightSide and handle everything from store relations and operations to marketing and communications.
The semester-long class is currently offered as a “special topics course,” but is going through the process to make it a permanent part of the marketing curriculum, Castro said.
“These stores wouldn’t have produce, if we weren’t the ones delivering it to them. I think having the interactions, being in the stores, stocking the produce and taking out the spoils, it just opens your eyes to the fact that some communities don’t have the resources they should,” said Shannon Reynolds, who leads BrightSide’s marketing and communications team. “I can’t imagine going to a store and not being able to buy produce because it’s not there.”
Since the start, BrightSide has nearly tripled the number of stores it serves. Currently, all participating stores are located in National City, but the group would like to expand throughout the greater San Diego region.
“The program provides students with valuable hands-on experience embedded in business curriculum. Students are running a business that is addressing a need in the local community, one that existing business models have been unable to address,” said Castro.
“It is teaching students about the importance of social innovation, community impact, sustainability and caring about the greater good. Students benefit from direct experience working on a social venture and managing all aspects of the operation, while making a difference in the community.
(This article is from the SDSU NewsCenter)
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General Dynamics-NASSCO Looking
to Hire up to 1,000 Shipbuilders
General Dynamics-NASSCO said Friday its looking to hire 800 to 1,000 workers to help the San Diego shipyard build a lengthy list of huge Navy support ships and container vessels that are collectively worth more than $4 billion. NASSCO also needs more workers to repair Navy warships, an aspect of its business that could grow if the Trump administration carries through with plans to spend more on ship maintenance.
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Second Matson Containership
Begins Construction at NASSCO
General Dynamics NASSCO has started construction on the second ship in a two-ship series of Kanaloa-class containerships for Matson Navigation Company Inc. Construction of Matsonia began with a ceremonial first cut of steel at NASSCO’s San Diego shipyard where the first ship in the series, Lurline, is 15 percent complete. Both ships will transport containers, automobiles and rolling stock between the West Coast of the United States and Hawaii.
Using proven design standards, the ship design incorporates liquefied natural gas-capable main and auxiliary engines, which are compliant with Tier III emission requirements.
Construction of the first ship for Matson, Lurline, is scheduled to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2019. Matsonia is scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2020.
NASSCO partnered with DSEC Co., Ltd., to provide Matson with state-of-the-art ship design and shipbuilding technologies. For more than a decade, this partnership has produced premium ships for five separate Jones Act owners.
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Upcoming Major Events at the
San Diego Convention Center
• 90th Annual AAAE Conference and Exposition, Apr. 15-17 (2,000 attendees)
• SDCAA’s Rental Housing Education Conference & EXPO, Apr. 17 (3,500 attendees)
• San Diego National College Fair 2018 / NACAC, Apr. 19 (6,000 attendees)
• Experimental Biology 2018, Apr. 21-25 (15,000 attendees)
SDAR 2018 Realtors Expo & Conference / SD Realtors, Apr. 27 (2,000 attendees)
• American Association for Thoracic Surgery Annual 2018, Apr. 29 – May 1 (5,000 attendees)
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Cubic Corp. Among Six Firms Chosen
by Army to Share $900 Million Contract
Cubic Corporation’s defense segment business is one of six companies chosen by the U.S. Army to support the Defense Department’s Joint Test and Evaluation Program under a potention 10-year, $900 million shared contract.
DoD said 12 bids were submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers’ engineering research and development center for the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract via the Internet.
The JT&E program combines defense science community expertise and warfighter experience in efforts to examine and address complex joint operational challenges. It leverages a test and evaluation methodology intended for joint military community applications.
Awardees are:
- American Systems
- Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH)
- Cubic’s (NYSE: CUB) global defense segment
- DCS Corp.
- Scientific Research Corp.
- Wyle Laboratories
Wyle has been operating as KBRwyle since its 2016 acquisition by Houston-based KBR.
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General Atomics Unit Gets $296 Million
USAF MQ-9 RPA Production Contract
GovCon Wire
A General Atomics business unit will provide fiscal 2017 configuration of the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft to the U.S. Air Force under a potential three-year, $295.7 million contract.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. is scheduled to complete work under the sole-source contract by July 29, 2021, the Defense Department said.
The MQ-9 RPA, also called Predator B, is designed to comply with manned aircraft reliability standards and equipped wit a flight control system and an avionics system architecture.
GA-ASI said that the system can accommodate multiple mission payloads such as electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), multimode Lynx and maritime surveillance radars, electronic support measures and laser designator systems.
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General Atomics Receives Contract
to Support UK MQ-9B UAV Program
ExecutiveBiz
General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business has received an $80.9 million U.S. Air Force contract to design, build, integrate and test components in support of the U.K.’s MQ-9B Protector program.
The service branch will obligate $33.5 million in FMS funds at the time of award, the Defense Department said.
The U.K. said it will initially buy 16 units of the Protector remotely piloted aircraft variant from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. to replace the British air force’s current MQ-9 Reaper platform.
GA-ASI will perform work on the contract in Poway through Aug. 31, 2021.
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Dexcom’s Glucose Monitoring
System Receives FDA Approval
The Food and Drug Administration gave San Diego-based Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitoring system Dexcom G6 marketing approval and classified the product as a Class II device.
The Dexcom G6 can integrate with other medical devices and electronic interfaces like insulin pumps, blood glucose meters and automated insulin dosing systems.
The device is a small patch that users apply to their abdomen. A sensor within the device continuously measures glucose in the user’s body fluid and transmits readings every five minutes to its smartphone app.
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CONNECT Opens Nominating Period
for Most Innovative New Product Awards
CONNECT has opened the nomination period for the 2018 Most Innovative New Product Awards. The deadline is July 23.
Winners will be announced at an awards dinner on Nov. 29 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine.
Click here for more information.
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When Drugs are Wrong, Skipped or Make You
Sick: The Cost of Non-optimized Medications
Rising drug prices have gotten a lot of attention lately, but the actual cost of prescription medications is more than just the dollars and cents on the bill. Researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego estimate that illness and death resulting from non-optimized medication therapy costs $528.4 billion annually, equivalent to 16 percent of total U.S. health care expenditures in 2016.
“Ideally, when you’re sick, a health care professional prescribes you a medication, you take it as directed and you get better,” said Jonathan Watanabe, associate professor of clinical pharmacy in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy. “But what happens a lot of the time is the medication regimen is not optimized. In other words, the prescription may not be exactly appropriate for your indication — not quite the right medication or dose — or you just don’t take the medication for whatever reason, don’t take them as directed, or the medication causes an adverse event or a new health problem.”
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Northrop Data-Gathering Instruments
Activated on NOAA Weather Satellite
ExecutiveBiz
Two Northrop Grumman-built instruments onboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite have been activated to perform post-launch data collection.
The initial set of data from Northrop’s Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder and Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System Flight Model 6 will aid startup and checkout tests before NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System 1 reaches full operational status, the company said.
JPSS-1 was launched into space in November aboard a United Launch Alliance’s Delta IIrocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base and officially designated as NOAA-20 once it reached final orbit.
Northrop designed the ATMS to provide atmospheric temperature vertical profiles of the Earth’s surface to an altitude of nearly 28 miles and capture images of water vapor, precipitation and snow and ice cover.
CERES FM-6 began to scan the Earth’s surface since its covers were opened Jan. 5 and ATMS achieved provisional maturity status Jan. 23.
Other companies that developed NOAA-20 satellite instruments and features were Ball Aerospace, Harris and Raytheon.
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Personnel Announcements
Brian Harrison Joins Regents Bank as Senior Vice President
Regents Bank has hired Brian Harrison as senior vice president/ senior relationship manager. Harrison will work from Regents Bank’s Downtown San Diego office.
Harrison brings a diverse background to his 25-year banking practice, having previously served as chief financial officer for oil and gas corporations as well as an investment banker. Most recently, he served as vice president at Banner Bank.
“I’ve been on both sides,” said Harrison. “I know what it’s like to raise capital, oversee mergers and acquisitions and even take a company public.”
Harrison is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). As part of a corporate finance group at an investment banking firm, he was enrolled in the Canadian Institute of Certified Business Valuators, a group dedicated to the study of the valuation of private corporations.
Harrison is completing his third and senior year of a banking certification program at Pacific Coast Banking School where he is producing a management report entitled Artificial Intelligence Impact on Banking.
Harrison is a resident of Chula Vista and a member and past president of the Risk Management Association San Diego chapter.
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Nicholas Psyhogios Joins Latitude 33 Planning & Engineering
Latitude 33 Planning & Engineering has named Nicholas J. Psyhogios as its newest associate principal. He brings 20 years of experience in the civil design and management of residential, commercial, utility, wetland restoration, and public sector projects to Latitude 33.
Psyhogios joins Latitude 33 with proven leadership, management, and negotiating experience. He has previously worked for Fuscoe Engineering Inc. in both a project management and business development role. Prior to that, he worked at Project Design Consultants Inc. where his responsibilities included serving as the primary client contact, permitting, presentations and public hearings, negotiations, managing contracts and deliverables, due diligence, overseeing the construction bid process, engineering reports, and more.
His notable projects in Southern California include the San Dieguito Wetlands Restoration Project (San Diego/Del Mar), Rancho Coronado (San Marcos), Pala Mesa (Fallbrook), and the Creek District Master plan (San Marcos).
