As some of you know, I’ve been on a campaign to take the guilt out of our guilty pleasures. But in these days of layoffs, furloughs, and cutbacks, it seems that fine-dining is the pleasure that currently causes the most guilt. I mean, digging into a $150 tasting menu, with wine pairings, can make you feel like Nero fiddling away while Rome burns. (Not the Nero felt all the guilty, but you get the idea.)

Which is why I dig the idea behind Dining Out for Life. It’s a fundraiser for Food & Friends, a local non-profit that provides nutritional counseling as well as meals and groceries to more than 1,400 people living in the area with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses.

So how do you contribute?

You go out to eat tomorrow, Thursday, March 5. That’s it. Go eat somewhere, and you’re a saint.

Even better, you can eat at restaurants such as Sushi Ko, Poste Moderne Brasserie, BlackSalt, Cashion’s Eat Place, and more than 100 other local places. The owners of these restaurants have agreed to share between 25-100 percent of their proceeds to Food & Friends.

C’mon, folks, what are you waiting for? Guilt-free fine-dining tomorrow night for a great cause.