Point Loma-Ocean Beach news briefs: Food for health workers, medical building sold, grants awarded and more
Frontline Foods San Diego helping to feed health workers
Frontline Foods San Diego has delivered more than 10,000 meals to 92 health departments and organizations to help local restaurants stay in business and aid health care workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Frontline Foods is a nationwide nonprofit that began in the Bay Area with the concept to buy meals from local restaurants to be delivered to front-line health care workers. The San Diego chapter was started with the help of Michael Van Sickler of Point Loma, who launched a GoFundMe page in early March to support his wife, an intensive care nurse, as well as other health workers and local restaurants.
“As a husband to a front-line nurse here in San Diego, I feel a need to do my part to help out the nurses, physicians and other health care staff who are working tirelessly to contain this virus, care for the ill and keep our communities safe,” Van Sickler said on his GoFundMe page.
Van Sickler collaborated with local organizers Liza Gurtin and Brett Roggenkamp, who were aiming to start a Frontline Foods chapter in San Diego.
Frontline Foods partnered with international nonprofit relief program World Central Kitchen. All donations were used to purchase the meals being provided to front-line health care workers and families in need.
WCK and Frontline Foods San Diego have delivered meals to health care units at institutions such as UC San Diego Health, Rady Children’s Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital of San Diego County, VA health clinics and senior living and hospice facilities.
To donate, visit bit.ly/frontlinefoodssd. For more information, visit frontlinefoods.org/san-diego or email sandiego@frontlinefoods.org.
Medical office building sold for $6 million in Midway District
Richley Medical Plaza, a medical office building in the Midway District, has been sold to an Orange County-based pain management group for $6 million, CBRE announced.
CBRE’s Dan Henry and Lars Eisenhauer represented the seller, a private investor, in the transaction. The buyer was represented by an outside firm.
The two-story, 25,600-square-foot building at 3434 Midway Drive was built in 1991. The property includes a 6,475-square-foot surgery center, three operating rooms, a recovery area, a waiting room, a reception area, two restrooms and 65 parking spaces. The building was about 85 percent vacant at the time of sale.
Habitat conservancy gets grant from teen philanthropists
The board of the Jewish Teen Foundation of San Diego granted a total of $21,855 to seven nonprofits— including the Liberty Station-based San Diego River Habitat Conservancy, following a year-long learning program about philanthropy.
The San Diego River Habitat Conservancy is a nationally accredited land trust that has been working since 2004 to acquire, manage and protect land that supports sensitive habitats and species.
The Jewish Teen Foundation held a virtual check presentation ceremony for the 2019-20 grant recipients and the teen participants on May 10. For more information, visit jewishfed.org.
Liberty Station’s Outside the Lens gets $100,000 grant
Liberty Station’s Outside the Lens will receive a $100,000 grant in the Voices of Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge, sponsored by a group of eight philanthropic organizations.
It has been selected as one of 28 organizations from 18 states and the District of Columbia to help elevate diverse voices and broaden the national conversation about poverty and economic mobility.
Outside the Lens, which provides photography and digital media programming, will launch an app-based participatory media project called Re_Line in partnership with high school students to connect communities and better understand and spread awareness of historical barriers to economic mobility.
“The purpose of the Grand Challenge, launched in September 2019, is to establish ways to offer alternatives to confusing, conflicting and just plain inaccurate accounts about what poverty is, why it happens, to whom it happens and how to address it,” according a news release.
For more information, visit gcgh.grandchallenges.org.
Local entrepreneur donates plasma after recovering from COVID-19
Tim Callan, a Point Loma entrepreneur and member of local entrepreneurial group PEERS Network, has twice donated his convalescent plasma after recovering from COVID-19 in order to help others who have contracted the coronavirus.
People who have recovered from COVID-19 have blood plasma that contains antibodies that helped their immune system fight the disease, and their plasma may help others fight it off.
The second time Callan donated, he enlisted about a dozen fellow PEERS members to donate blood to support the San Diego Blood Bank’s work related to the coronavirus.
Callan, of financial advisory firm Callan Capital, was diagnosed COVID-19-positive in early March. His wife, Jacqueline, and their 4-year-old daughter, Lily, showed symptoms soon after, and Jacqueline also tested positive. Lily was too young to be tested.
To make an appointment or a financial donation for the San Diego Blood Bank, visit SanDiegoBloodBank.org. Donors must be 17 or older, weigh a minimum of 114 pounds and be in general good health.