Some people think that the refugees who come to the United States are not “the best people” of the countries they come from, but they are meeting different refugees than I am. The refugees I am meeting are brave, hard-working and often heroic, risking their lives, sometimes for years, to get their children to safety and the promise of a better life.

Many have endured unspeakable horrors, and the refugee kids live and go to school in an environment where everybody around them has more than they  have. We are trying to balance that by funding selective clothes – like winter boots – and trips to the movie, skating rinks, and indoor soccer tournaments.

America once was united in its commitment to welcome refugees to our shores, but that has gotten more complex. Last year, the RISSE office building was burned to the ground by arsonists, they have never been caught.

None of these kids and none of their families have the money to do the things that even poor American kids get to do. Today, the Army Of Good is funding an excursion to see Star Wars. Later in the week, bowling and ice-skating, inexpensive things they love to do.

We are also buying gifts for a young woman at RISSE who was mistakenly left off a holiday gift list donated by a local hospital. She was left out, she will get her gift. Those are the small things that can mean so much.

Being a refugee is one of the hardest things in the world to be, because by definition, a refugee has lost everything and faced death and awful persecution just to be eligible to come here. Many people in my family were refugees, and faced persecution, many were saved by people who cared enough about them to help.

I wish to be one of those people who helped these people when they needed it. I see I am not alone in this.

I had a long talk with Ali this morning, and we talked about the families of the soccer kids. I asked him what they need – many have no fathers at home, they were killed or died or forced to stay behind – he said it is his fantasy to bring groceries to some of these families once a month.

And I said why not?

Our first Grocery Campaign recipient will be a woman from the Congo, who came to America after years in a refugee camp. Her  husband was killed there and she has eight children to support. She could use our help. We are planning the first drop the first or second week of January.

This is something I would support and the Army Of Good would support. We talked about taking $150 each month and going to a supermarket in the Albany, New York are and bring it to one of the refugee families, I am learning that many refugees struggle to buy enough groceries each month, and the government programs that once helped them are being cut or eliminated.

So I suggested that after the New Year’s holiday, we launch a once a  month Grocery Campaign, buying $150 worth of groceries for a single family, and then doing the same thing the first week of every month. He said that would make a staggering difference to these families.

I will go along with Ali and buy the food and help deliver it, and I will take photos and you can see just where your money is doing and what for, something I work hard to do all the time. I am also committed to getting uniforms for the new RISSE women’s basketball team, but that will come in a few weeks.

Ali says this grocery trek would make a profound difference and I can see from my first visits to these homes that he is right. The refugees are proud and rarely ask for help. But Ali knows from the soccer kids that there is sometimes not enough to eat.

We just sent truckloads of winter clothes for them to wear, I’d like to get them so warm and nutritious food.

There is no more basic thing than food that we can offer these good people – they are some of the best people I know – than food for them and their children to eat, to take some of the awful pressure off of them.

In previous years, the refugees received support from the federal government to help them adjust, that support is vanishing, so there are a lot of holes to fill. My idea is we identify the small holes and work to fill some of them.

If you wish to support the First Week Refugee Grocery Project, you can donate by sending a check to mat P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. Thank you.