Alumnus reaps benefits of superfruit

It's the morning after formal, your head is pounding and all you can think about is how you're going to get to your 9:30 a.m. class without hurling. 

You consider a non-FDA-approved 5-hour Energy or a mundane cup of coffee even though you know it won't allay your suffering. However, we know what will. 

A year ago, University alumnus Chuck Casano, Class of '00, began producing Pitaya+, a super-fruit drink loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and even fiber to help quench every level of thirst. 

In addition to adding so many great nutrients to the daily diet, Pitaya+ is listed as the fruit drink with the lowest levels of sugar, according to a Pitaya+ spokeswoman. 

Pitaya, the fruit, has even been promoted by Dr. Oz who noted that one of the Pitaya+ ingredients, Lycopene, "is known for helping to reduce damage to the skin when exposed to the sun." 

This doesn't mean, however, that drinking 10 bottles of Pitaya+ a week will reverse the damage that a tanning bed did, but it will help skin build a tolerance to prolonged sun exposure. 

At Villanova, Casano was a communication major as well as a member of the men's lacrosse team. 

He talks about his study abroad experiences in Chile and Spain, especially how they influenced him to live and prosper internationally.

After college, he worked for IBM for a number of years and then moved to Madrid, Spain, where he got his MBA and began looking for a career. 

In true University tradition, he took a position at a non-profit in Nicaragua, a position found through MBA's Without Borders.

After living in Nicaragua for a year, the question finally came to him as to why the Pitaya fruit, which was so healthy and available, wasn't being harvested in the United States. 

Eight months, a business plan and some investment capital later, Pitaya+ was off and running. 

Pitaya+, founded in the spirit of the University, was carried on in the form of a social mission in hopes of benefitting its Nicaragua and the people.

"I wanted to give back to a country that had given me so much," Casano says. "Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, and [has] the kindest people you've ever known." 

With that spirit, Casano continued to forge strong relationships with the natives in Nicaragua, learning about their culture, and more importantly their needs. 

The rate of births to single mothers is staggeringly high in that part of the world, so the company decided to hire what they now label "Super-Moms" or single, Nicaraguan mothers to work in the factories. These women are paid well above minimum wage, and the company contributes to their social security as a result of their job. 

These types of circumstances are unheard of for single women in Nicaragua. 

"The ‘Super-Moms' are a way to bring attention to the single mothers in this community and an opportunity for the consumers to connect with the product," Casano says. 

He loved the idea of creating an industry for the fruit and "rewarding generations of farmers who have dedicated their lives to this fruit and this mission."