When diners go out to eat for KC Restaurant Week, they’ll be helping one of the nation’s most vulnerable populations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Don Bosco Centers are among the beneficiaries and will receive some of the proceeds from restaurant owners. While it includes a community center and an ESL school, it also provides for seniors and adults with disabilities.

‘We have toiletries and necessities for these seniors,’ said Liz Zini, the director of the Don Bosco Community Center. ‘We home deliver their meals… but it’s not just food, it’s a wellness check.’

The Don Bosco Senior Center has been closed since March, eliminating the one social environment many of the seniors had pre-pandemic.

The fitness center, pool table area and hallways are filled with coats and boxes. The dining room is now where employees pack lunches for Meals on Wheels.

‘We want to cry. It’s very sad. They are really sad. They miss this place,’ Cecilia Sierra said.

Sierra started working for the Don Bosco Centers in the early 1990’s and served as an interpreter for the Hispanic senior community. She remembers knocking on their doors years ago to invite them to the senior center.”