I admit it.

I love to volunteer at Thanksgiving and Christmas, doing whatever — cooking, serving meals, cleaning up. Although Ed and I give money to charities year-round, it’s mostly during the holidays when I feel called to show up in person to help.

And that’s exactly what leads to the challenging question I must ask myself: What is my desire to volunteer during the holidays really about?
Me feeling good?
Me combatting the holiday blues?

Is that also why so many of you are clamoring to get involved in giving and sharing at this time of year?

They call us fair-weather or “festive” volunteers.

I suspect it’s not that the charities we flock to aren’t grateful for our willingness to help. It’s just that there are already so many pairs of hands on deck during the holidays that all many of us do, really, is get in the way.

It’s time I reminded myself of the obvious truth, which is that hunger, homelessness and poverty aren’t just holiday issues.
According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2017, there were around 554,000 homeless people in the United States on any given night, or 0.17% of the population. And the Census Bureau reported that more than 45 million people, or 14.5 percent of all Americans, lived below the poverty line last year.

There simply are no peaks and troughs in the need for services to the poor, the hungry and the homeless. They need our help 365 days a year. But I haven’t shown up for them most years — in any deeply personal way — for the 363 days that are not Christmas or Thanksgiving.

I’m afraid that our collective focus on the issue of homelessness during the holidays has a dark underbelly: It contributes to its lack of visibility in our minds during the rest of the year.

And I no longer want to be part of this.

I vow to begin volunteering in the summer months when needs are the greatest. I’ve learned that summer is generally the toughest time for those living in poverty, because so many kids lose access to free or reduced-price lunch and breakfast. In addition, religious and social groups that do food drives don’t organize as often in the summer, and social programs that run around the school schedule are shut down.

And, I might add, those of us with the resources to help are often focused on our fancy vacations!

Now that I’ve awakened to my own selfish motives, it seems like a no-brainer to volunteer my time when people need me most, rather than when they need me least– and I most need to feel good about myself.