Spin out Find Active Coffee Co. in The Creamery Marketplace at 570 Higuera St., suite 190, in downtown San Luis Obispo. It s open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Visit activecoffeeco.com for more info. A spoonful of sugar spins into wisps of feathery white as barista Pablo Arriola deftly twists a paper straw, gathering the sticky fibers into a cloud. He plops the finished cotton candy onto an oat milk chai latte and hands it over. With a little chai flavoring, the ivory tuft smells faintly of spices. Active Coffee Co. owner Stacy Magana instructs me to pull the straw out of the fluff and gently push the center into the chai while leaving some sugar fibers on the cup s rim for my drinking pleasure.
Sundays in the field Templeton Hills Community Farm is hosting a one-year anniversary celebration on April 18 and is open for volunteers on Sundays at 930 Templeton Hills Road in Templeton. Visit the farm s Facebook page @grow.give.serve to learn more about what s growing and how and when to volunteer. Red wigglers squirm between brown leaves and green vegetable parts as Matt Giese lifts the lid of a wooden box on stilts. The worm composting bin s surface is alive with beings turning discarded organic material into nutrient-rich food for the rows at Templeton Hills Community Farm. Castings fall out of the bottom of the bin, ready to become the compost tea that Farm Manager Giese swears by.
March changed everything on the Central Coast. With the influx of COVID-19 cases in SLO County came stay-at-home and shutdown orders, shuttering once lively bars and restaurants and leaving them with one option serving up to-go food and adult beverages. Waiters/waitresses, bartenders, chefs, cooks, bussers, and hosts/hostesses lost their jobs. Restaurants and bars tried to pivot their menus and offerings, cities tried to make streets and sidewalks available for outdoor dining. Some places closed temporarily, some permanently. Local school districts and the SLO Food Bank stepped in to fill the hunger gap exacerbated by economic losses due to COVID-19 regulations. By the end of 2020, the SLO Food Bank had provided nearly 5 million pounds of food to more than 70,000 SLO County residents, 153 percent of the 3.2 million it provided in 2019. Through 60 distribution sites and partnerships with 82 nonprofits, the Food Bank provided food to 14,000 households per month in 20
Cover Design by Alex Zuniga Everybody knows that the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest story of 2020, with social and political tensions coming in a very close second and almost certainly intertwined with the pandemic. Although California also had another record fire season in 2020, SLO County thankfully didn t. The happiest county on the California coast made national news several times this past year with SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson s and District Attorney Dan Dow s stance against Black Lives Matter protesters and COVID-19 regulations, the arrest and prosecution of protest leader Tianna Arata, and COVID-19 positive case numbers taking up the bulk of that national attention. Local residents seemed to take issue with everything facing each other in the streets with protests and anti-protests, bickering online in divergent Facebook groups and catty Instagram stories, shouting about COVID
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As 2020 comes to a close, the Sun looks back at some of last year s big stories
By SUN STAFF
Turns out, so much happened in 2020 that we really don’t have space to cover it all. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic is the big story, with social and political tensions taking a close second. Although California also had a record fire season in 2020, Santa Barbara County thankfully didn’t. Santa Maria made the national news for a violent incident after the election between Trump advocates and the opposition, the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District gave out more failing grades than it did the previous school year, and the wine industry battled over a proposed business improvement district that was ultimately withdrawn. Plus, we are still reeling in the uncertainty of the pandemic in its effects on the health care and education systems, the economy, everyday normalcy, and those whom COVID-19 infected. Who knows what 2021 will bring, but I think we’re all looking