This time of year, it can get absurdly confusing to pick your good causes.  Should you give away food, clothes or money?  Do you give in a reactive manner, by running into folks around town?  Or do you shop around, trying to decide what charities might catch your fancy?

Last year, our posting about charity drop-offs was one of the top traffic-getters at Today in Montclair.  That gives us plenty of hope, since you were clearly interested in helping needy Oaklanders.

This week, Oakland bloggers came together in the “blogoaksphere” to help Alameda County’s Community Food Bank.  You may now donate food morsels with a mouse click or two, which seems much easier than buying goods and dropping them off.

Our local Food Bank benefits when they buy food directly – and claim to “stretch $1 in donations into $7 worth of distributed food.”  Plus there’s no need for the Food Bank to sort through food donations, so they conserve on sweat equity too.

Try clicking the cute red buttons above, or in the right-hand navigation.  Then start shopping for virtual groceries and donate money directly.  We decided to “buy” some peanut butter for the Food Bank, and it only took a few minutes…for this good cause.