KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jake Imperiale is not just battling the pandemic as a restaurant owner, but a father of a nurse recovering from COVID19, and as a man with a lot of family and friends in Italy.
At Bella Napoli in Brookside, he and his staff are making sandwiches for eight Kansas City hospitals each week. Now each donation will be matched by a generous anonymous donor.
Imperiale says his daughter, a local ER nurse, has been quarantined for a few weeks after testing positive for COVID-19 but is recovering now.
"She's doing well and she’s just ready to get back to work ironically," he said. "As a parent, it’s hard watching your child through a window and not being able to do anything. Its pretty helpless."
When friends and customers found out Imperiale had quietly started delivering sandwiches to hospitals a few weeks ago, they wanted to help. Donations started coming in, some large and anonymous. Some were small like the 7-year-old who gave his $10 in lunch money.
"That one just touched my heart," Imperiale said.
Wednesday, they delivered 65 sandwiches to Research Medical Center.
"This kind of thing, it makes you feel more close, connected," nurse Ashley Till said. "Almost just like family. It is definitely appreciated."
Now they have enough to give 1,500 sandwiches and one donor is hoping you will keep giving by matching each donation from now on. Just call the restaurant to make a donation.
Imperiale says Bella Napoli, a neighborhood staple for nineteen years, gets 90 percent of its inventory from Italy, where the pandemic has killed more than 25,000, where he still has a lot of family and friends, and where his parents met.
"My mom’s flower girl actually said this is worse than the war And they’re totally confined. At least we can go take a walk, they’re not even allowed to do that right now. So I think its been tough on them."
Imperiale was inspired to offer sandwiches as support to honor his daughter and as an homage to his father who took a bucket-full of sandwiches to work every day.
"I could never understand how he could eat so much. Then I realized at his funeral, somebody came up to me and said he used to feed the whole railroad yard."
Now he will feed as many as he can, with the community's help, until it is safe for Bella Napoli to be filled with friends again.
"I hope we can get back to that really soon."
