With 2025 just getting started, some people are choosing to do what they do best: volunteer. The work that volunteers do in their spare time accomplishes so much in the region. From dishing out food that serves houseless residents a meal to making sure students can cross the street safely before and after school, the range of ways to give back is limitless—and it takes a community. For our annual Volunteers issue, Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal writes about the community working to restore the Atascadero Printery, Staff Writer Libbey Hanson speaks to the volunteers who dish up daily hot meals for the less fortunate, and Staff Writer Samantha Herrera writes about the nonprofit preserving history in Nipomo.
—Camillia Lanham, editor
Beyond a building
The Atascadero Printery has a volunteer nonprofit backing it for artistic restoration
BY BULBUL RAJAGOPAL
Eat and greet
The People’s Kitchen of SLO provides hot meals for the hungry 364 days a year
BY LIBBEY HANSON
Nipomo’s living history
The Dana Adobe needs volunteers to help preserve the history of the 130-acre property
BY SAMANTHA HERRERA
This article appears in Volunteers 2025.