How would you like to spend a day picking produce on a farm? Serving meals at a soup kitchen? Reading a story to a child? This is the kind of work volunteers do in our area every day.

Many of you have written or called to ask about volunteering to help the needy in our area on Christmas Day. Your generous offer is appreciated and your help is needed, but not so much on Christmas Day.

Emily Huck is volunteer coordinator for East End Cooperative Ministry, an interfaith nonprofit organization that serves children and youth.

"On Thanksgiving Day and the day after, we had 20 to 30 volunteers serving meals to our clients," said Ms. Huck, "but there have been other days where there weren't enough volunteers to prepare and serve those meals."

Ms. Huck says 10 volunteers a day are needed for the Meals on Wheels program in the East Liberty, Garfield and Shadyside area to deliver about 90 meals a day.

"Our soup kitchen serves between 100 and 140 people a day for lunch, Monday through Friday," said Ms. Huck. "We always need volunteers in the soup kitchen."

If you have a strong back, your help is needed every Tuesday morning. That's when the ministry receives its delivery of 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of food that will be served to the hungry and distributed through local food pantries.

If you would like to find out more about volunteering for East End Cooperative Ministry, call Ms. Huck at 412-361-5549.

You can also call the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank in Duquesne at 412-460-3663, Ext. 211 or 281. There you will find a never-ending need for volunteers.

Volunteers repack and box food that will be distributed to food pantries all over the area. Every Saturday, trucks deliver produce to families in Homestead, Braddock, McKeesport and the South Side. Volunteers often stand out in the rain helping fill laundry baskets and cardboard boxes with apples and carrots, juice and bread.

I was in McKeesport on one of those Saturdays. There were more than 400 families in line. On that day, you meet the people you are helping, some of whom say they never dreamed they would be standing in a food line.

If you think about helping every year, why not make this the year you pick up the phone and make the connection?

Some more groups that need volunteers: The Salvation Army, 412-394-4800; Light of Life Rescue Mission on the North Side, 412-258-6100; or the Intersection in McKeesport, 412-678-6948. Any one of these organizations can help you connect with people who need your time.

Q. Our church, Noblestown United Methodist, has collected a huge box of used Christmas Cards (fronts only) and can't find a place that wants them. Previously we sent them to St. Jude's, but they no longer want them. Can you help us find a place that would like them?

DARLENE PHILLIPS
Oakmont

A. The problem is that organizations like St. Jude's that used to ask for holiday cards have cried uncle! Too much of a good thing can be more of a burden than a blessing.

I do know that some senior centers appreciate getting holiday cards. The cards are reused for craft projects. So here's the deal: If you know of an organization that wants these cards, please let me know. We've got lots of used cards waiting for a good home.