If you’re like us, it’s been a long week.

You’ve finished your midterms, you’re still preparing for them, or you’re right in the middle of them.

However you find yourself, it’s not going to be a pleasant weekend — either you’re about to spend your “free time” writing papers and catching up on long overdue reading assignments, or you’ll spend it recovering from your Friday night adventures.

We’d like to propose a third option — one you might find yourself looking back on with some sense of small joy.

The Daily sponsors an annual food drive in cooperation with CyRide, Signify U, 105.1 Channel Q and 1430 KASI every year. Donations support the Ames emergency food pantry of Mid-Iowa Community Action (or MICA), Inc.

Last year, volunteers collected nearly $3,000 for the pantry, and stuffed four CyRide buses full of donated items.

So if you’re hoping to look back on this weekend with a certain sense of pride and/or satisfaction in having leant a helping hand to a fellow Ames resident, consider swinging by and dropping off something you feel you’re able to share.

Volunteers will be stationed at both Hy-Vees and Fareways, as well as Cub Foods, from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. You’ll recognize them by their bright yellow T-shirts.

Store associates wearing buttons are there to point you in the right direction, and flags and tags on the groceries’ shelves will draw your attention to items on MICA’s wish list — things they’re always in need of.

And next year, when you see the signs go up around campus and the ads begin to run in the paper, several weeks out, consider getting involved.

Organizers traditionally reach out to greeks, 10,000 Hours Show participants, students enrolled in event planning courses and through the Volunteer Center for Story County, where you’ll find a host of volunteer opportunities across Story County.

But maybe this is your weekend to cool down, veg out, chill and unwind. If so, enjoy.

But volunteering does something more for the soul than a cold one can, so if not this weekend, make time at some point this semester to help someone out in your community who can’t help themselves.

And, heck, if you really wanted to, you could tell your sibling your Christmas gift was a volunteer stint at your local grocery store. Definitely the cheap route to go, and they might even like it.