Opinion: During National Volunteer Month, let’s recognize San Diego’s best

Volunteers are the heartbeat of nonprofit organizations like Serving Seniors. Their energy and kindness make our programs possible and show our clients the humanity behind a warm smile and helping hand.

Serving Seniors volunteers create a community of caring. They see our clients as family, friends and neighbors. Their contributions of time, talent and treasure bring our mission to life every day.

April is National Volunteer Month. At Serving Seniors, we celebrate our volunteers every day. They are nothing less than essential to our work with San Diego’s low-income and homeless older adults. We could not provide our services to as many deserving people without them.

Serving Seniors gratefully welcomes its growing number of community and corporate partners, whether brand new to us or longtime supporters, who selflessly give back to our community of older adults in need.

In our recent 2024-2025 annual report, Serving Seniors reported 13,577 volunteer hours were donated to our organization, with a value of this time calculated as $544,980. This nearly half-million dollars in savings allows us to use it elsewhere to increase our outreach.

But we can’t put a price on the human connection our volunteers make with our older adult clients.

ASML, a technology company based in the Netherlands with a major presence in San Diego County, is a champion for our clients. Throughout the year, a team of ASML employees joins Serving Seniors to volunteer all day at our Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center. Together, they help prepare and serve hundreds of nutritious meals to older adults in need. They take time to connect personally with enthusiasm and warmth. Meaningful conversations flow in our dining room. These individual small acts of service make a big difference.

Misti Benson, program manager for society and community engagement at ASML, reports that over the past year, ASML employee volunteers have contributed nearly 100 hours of service to Serving Seniors, including assembling 400 hygiene care kits, serving hundreds of meals, and leading activities encouraging connection, creativity, and community from bingo to craft projects to ice cream socials.

“ASML’s partnership with Serving Seniors provides opportunities for employee volunteers to engage directly with seniors while supporting essential services that promote well‑being and social connection,” said Benson. “These experiences reinforce why employee volunteering is such a meaningful part of ASML’s culture and why partnerships like this one are central to the spirit of Global Volunteer Month: showing up, working together and strengthening the community through service.”

In addition to its hands-on support, ASML recently provided a $650,000 grant to Serving Seniors to increase the health and wellbeing of low-income seniors by providing nutritionally sound meals. ASML’s support allows us to rent five large cargo vehicles to support our home-delivered meal clients. Over 60% of our annual 1.5 million meals served are home-delivered. With delivery costs rising, this is a true lifeline.

ASML is one of many champions for our older adult clients. Our partnership with ASML highlights the power of corporate volunteerism in creating stronger, more caring communities. We’re grateful for their generosity, teamwork and commitment to supporting our mission of helping seniors live healthy and fulfilling lives.

Corporate and business partners are essential in supporting the critical services Serving Seniors provides in San Diego County, alongside the many devoted individual volunteers we count on day in and day out.

For 56 years, more than 200 community leaders have provided their high level oversight, set strategic priorities, and offered their insights as members of the Serving Seniors board of directors. We’re fortunate to have dedicated people who devote countless hours behind the scenes to ensure the viability of Serving Seniors. They bring a rich and diverse background of expertise from law, finance, housing, information technology, business management, communications, social services and more.

The United Nations states that “Volunteerism is a basic expression of human relationships. It is about people’s need to feel that they matter to others.”

Wherever you contribute whether as a volunteer, a donor, or both, you are caring for people and causes that benefit everyone in our community. At Serving Seniors, what our volunteers give matters deeply to our older adult clients. Because of our volunteers, our clients thrive and age with respect and dignity, and the warmth of shared smiles and conversation. We can’t put a price on their generosity and giving spirit.

Melinda Forstey is president and chief executive officer of Serving Seniors.

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