Oh, the guilt: 5 volunteer opportunities that will make the holidays go easier on your conscience

The holidays are a time for two things: 1) Goodwill toward men and women and 2) Feeling guilty about the utter lack of goodwill toward men and women you show the rest of the year. Anyone who’s had to walk past a Salvation Army bell-ringer without any available change jangling in their pockets knows this feeling all too well. How do you rid of this feeling? Is there a special pill? A magic potion perhaps? Nope, try volunteering. Here are five great guilt-cleansing opportunities to make the holidays go a little easier on the your conscience this year.

1, If you're feeling guilty about: Making Taco Bell your fourth meal on a regular basis. 
Your guilt-cleansing volunteer opportunity: Learn how to cook and serve hearty meals for hundreds of people in the metro Milwaukee area with Campus Kitchen, a nationwide program with nearly two dozen branches at colleges in the U.S., focusing on providing healthy meals to elderly, homeless, and economically distressed populations across the country. More than 2,000 meals are served each month at the Milwaukee branch alone, so every extra helping hand is welcome.
How to get involved: Contact Jen Filz at jfilz@campuskitchens.org or 414-288-0342.

2. If you're feeling guilty about: Always passing out on tryptophan after just one piece of mom’s huge Thanksgiving turkey.
Your guilt-cleansing volunteer opportunity: Make up for all the turkey meat you’ve wasted over the years by donating a delicious bird to Hunger Task Force. Thanks to the magic of the internet, you don't even have to leave home to feed the hungry in our area. Just visit hungertaskforce.org/donate to contribute money that will go toward buying Thanksgiving turkeys for hundreds of Milwaukeeans.
How to get involved: For more information on volunteering with Hunger Task Force, contact Marie Greenfield at marie@hungertaskforce.org, or call at 414-238-6473.

3. If you're feeling guilty about: Faking H1N1 so you didn’t have to sit through another boring holiday meal with the family this year.
Your guilt-cleansing volunteer opportunity: Many families would love to eat together if they could only afford food. (How's that for guilt?) SHARE Wisconsin packages and distributes entire holiday meals—with trimmings—to hundreds of local families. SHARE is especially busy packaging and distributing Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner packages.
How to get involved: Contact SHARE Wisconsin at http://www.sharewi.org/service.htm or 800-548-2124.

4. If you're feeling guilty about: Your undying and bottomless dislike of children.
Your guilt-cleansing volunteer opportunity: Kids are like coffee—you have to work really hard to appreciate them, but once you do, you can’t get enough of the little S.O.B.s. Learn how to love miniature adults by leading tours for kids and families around the Wehr Nature Center grounds, pointing out seasonal changes, tidying up along the way, and drinking up the wonder that is childhood.
How to get involved: Contact Jo Tenney at jo.tenney@ces.uwex.edu or 414-425-8550.

5. If you're feeling guilty about: The myriad of cigarette butts and candy wrappers that you “accidentally" dropped on sidewalks, lawns, and parks around the East Side.
Your guilt-cleansing volunteer opportunity: The world is not a garbage can, and, yes, littering still counts even if you’re intoxicated. Since it’s too late to pick up after yourself, you might as well pick up after your fellow slobs. Clean up the UWM campus region and beyond with the guidance of the knowledgeable, experienced folks at the Urban Ecology Center.
How to get involved: To offer your efforts to Urban Ecology Center's ever-changing roster of seasonal volunteer duties, contact Susan Winans at 414-964-8505, x110 or swinans@urbanecologycenter.org.