Hundreds of local leaders recently gathered at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Leadership San Luis Obispo and donate to the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County.

Leadership San Luis Obispo, an independent nonprofit program of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, collected $220 and 452 pounds of food, the equivalent of 1,960 meals at the Oct. 16 event.

Every year, the program brings together a group of 36 strangers from around the county and asks them to step out of their everyday lives, open their minds, and imagine a better San Luis Obispo County and their role in creating it. The 20-year, all-class reunion event was an opportunity to honor the program’s founders and past directors, reconnect program graduates, and give back to the community.

In true Leadership San Luis Obispo style, guests at the event brought canned goods, non-perishable items and cash to donate to the Food Bank, which is the only countywide source of nutritious food for people in need from San Miguel to Nipomo. The Food Bank calculates that every dollar donation equals seven meals, so donations from the event will provide approximately 1,960 nutritious meals to people in need in the county. 

"We have never before experienced this kind of need county-wide, and Leadership SLO's example of including an outreach aspect to this event models the kind of community support that will get us through these hard times," said Carl Hansen, executive director of the Food Bank. "We are very grateful for their contribution."

Sandi Sigurdson, executive director of Leadership San Luis Obispo, said the "philosophy for Leadership SLO is to give participants tools and training so they can more effectively collaborate with one another to better our community."

"Each Leadership class is required to complete a service project, and we wanted to make sure that element of giving back was present at the reunion event as well."

Leadership San Luis Obispo is interviewing candidates for the 2012 class. Of this year’s 54 applicants, 36 will be accepted into the program. More than 700 San Luis Obispo County residents have graduated from the program since it began in 1991. As Leadership SLO continues to grow, San Luis Obispo County continues to benefit from the leadership of the program’s alumni in business, government, education, agriculture and non-profits.