My mail brought a great gift to me and to others today (above).  I was overjoyed and uplifted to find there were 20 Price Chopper Gift Cards to help the struggling Bishop Maginn High School families get through the next month without going hungry.

The Army Of Good has sent more than $18,000 worth of gift cards to the approximately 50 families who urgently need assistance due to the aftermath of the coronavirus.

They lost their jobs, many of their benefits stopped during the chaos, and many were infected with the virus. They and their families came under quarantine. Most of the nearby food pantries had closed.

I never saw Teacher Sue Silverstein or Principal Mike Tolan so upset or concerned.

This is a school with a heart, they took responsibility for caring for people almost no one else seemed to care about or could help.

They asked if I could help, and I promised myself that these people would not go hungry, no matter what. We went to work and we never stopped, every single day.

Every few days, I saw or received a wrenching message from mothers and fathers desperate to feed their families and purchase the food they can eat and want to eat.

Price Chopper, the grocery store chain in their neighborhood, not only has the food these families eat but delivers to their homes and apartments free of charge.

They can order online or on the phone.

Some of the families – Sue calls their situation “radical” – were desperate.

Every day for nearly six weeks, people have sent me gift cards and I have overnighted them to Sue Silverstein. I purchased more than $1,000 in gift cards myself and bought hundreds more for people who didn’t care to shop online or who had trouble with the Price Chopper website.

I buy some gift cards almost every day. Despite the rain of bad and contentious news, every day brought light and meaning to me. I came to see these cards as mystical and magical.

You don’t have to be good to do good.

These cards have come to symbolize something very special to me. They affirm my hope for human beings at a difficult time, they strengthen my hope and faith for the future, they expand and enrich my idea of love, empathy, and compassion.

This is our true selves, not the labels callous and angry people put on us.

They are, in a sense, the inevitable culmination of the work done by people from all over the country, most of whom I have never met or spoken with and would not recognize if I ran into them on the street.

We call ourselves the Army Of Good, a title that once seemed lofty to me, but now feels like an understatement. I am so grateful to you and to Mike Tolan and Sue Silverstein for trusting in me to help.

It is a great honor.

How privileged I am to be associated with people like this, who defy every single news broadcast I read or see and remind me of the goodness of human beings, given the chance.

Their trust and generosity are a sacred trust to me. Every day, one or more of the people in this proud army thanks me for letting them help other people who are needy and vulnerable, something I sometimes thought was no longer part of the American character.

I was wrong.

Every day those cards arrive makes me want to cry, and sometimes I do.

I did today before those cards arrived,  I had just gotten off the phone with Sue Silverstein and she told me these families would need help for about another month, when many will be healthy enough to return to work, and when their employers are expected to re-open and hire their furloughed workers back.

So we have about a month to go. I know now that we can do it and will do it. Sue says we made all the difference to these people, they pray for us and to us.

This is what they mean when they talk of the best of times and worst of times.  I think of my grandparents, who fled dreadful persecution to come here and experienced lives that were safer and more welcoming and meaningful than they ever imagined.

I believe we have kept that dream alive for this new generation, embattled and sometimes abandoned.

You can purchase a gift card here in any amount, and mail it or them to me (it’s the safest address now) Jon Katz, 2502 State Route 22, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

If you prefer, you can send me a contribution via Paypal, [email protected], or by mail, Jon Katz, 2502 State Route 22, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. I will be happy to purchase the gift cards for you. The denominations offered are $25, $50, $75 and $100.

Purchases of over $300 must be activated by an e-mail message sent soon after the purchase.

I believe this is transformative, for me and hopefully, for many of you. I have never experienced anything like it. Every bit of food I eat comes with gratitude and empathy.

We have made such an enormous difference in the lives of these people and their children, many of whom endured unimaginable sacrifice and ordeal to get to America.

Thanks to you, we showing them the true heart of our country. This is what America is really about.