CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte baker’s vision to bring resources and hope to the people fleeing Ukraine will soon become a reality.
Manolo Betancur, the owner of popular Manolo’s Bakery on Central Avenue in Charlotte, will leave for Poland on Sunday.
Betancur and a friend will be in Poland for nine days to meet with refugees, deliver aid funds and help Ukrainian bakers.
What You Need To Know
Charlotte baker is headed to Poland on Sunday to deliver aid funds
Manolo Betancur of Manolo's Bakery said he has raised nearly $10,000 for Ukrainians in need
Money will be spent on a new oven for Kyiv bakers and food for refugees
Back in late February, Betancur began raising funds for Ukraine by decorating cakes with the Ukrainian flag and selling them. He also sold other treats with portions of the funds going to Ukrainian aid.
So far, Betancur said he has raised nearly $10,000. Donations are still coming in, despite the bakery no longer making the flag cakes.
“A couple of hundred dollars from the goal, so extremely happy man, and very excited. A lot of good things we are going to be able to make,” Betancur said while busy in his bakery this week.
The money, which Betancur has had trouble transferring or sending to Europe, will be spent feeding refugees and helping a baker in Ukraine.
“So, they need $3,000 to build a new oven, a bigger oven, a wood oven but a bigger one. So I have a meeting with a baker,” Betancur said.
The baker is located near Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Betancur said the baker wants to use the larger oven to continue making bread. Betancur said the baker plans on building the oven, which uses wood due to electricity issues in the area, in an old Russian camp.
He and a friend, the Rev. Nathan Arledge from Myers Park United Methodist Church, will meet with representatives of the church and bakeries in Poland to get the money into Ukraine. They will be in Poland for nine days and have plans to visit a refugee camp near the border, where they will deliver birthday cakes to children. The remaining $6,000 of donations will go to buying food for the refugees, according to Betancur.
“This is just my first trip. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be taking more trips to there, because I want to support more local bakeries,” Betancur added.
Despite having his own business to run, family in Charlotte and other responsibilities, he said this is something he has to do to act on his Christian faith.
“If we say that we believe in God, man it’s, you know, the first thing that God had said, you know, ‘when I was hungry you gave me food. When I was thirsty you gave me drink. When I didn’t have a roof you gave me roof,’ man,” Betancur said while folding pastry dough.
On his trip, he will also deliver handwritten notes to refugee children, which have been dropped in a letter box at the bakery the last month and a half. Betancur’s 10-year-old daughter made the box and schoolchildren have helped fill it with messages, cards and notes.
Betancur, who left Colombia after serving in the military in the Colombian war, said he understands the violence and destruction war leaves for people who live there.
“I come from a war country, I lived the war myself. I know how much suffering they’re having, how much pain they’re having. So, we need to bring them hope, a smile,” he said.
His recipe for goodwill is being shared by his 25 employees. One employee donated half his paycheck, roughly $500, to take with him, according to the baker.
“Let us keep fighting, let us keep working together for a better world,” Betancur said.
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