An employer and provider, Mr. Betancur bakes to change the world.
The motto at Manolo’s Latin Bakery in Charlotte, North Carolina, is simple: “Our bread. Our People. Our Future.” Since founding the neighborhood institution over 25 years ago, NSBA member Manolo Betancur has become Charlotte’s premier purveyor of Hispanic baked goods. Today, Mr. Betancur serves breads and cakes originating from Mexico to Argentina, so “everyone has a chance to taste their home and their culture.”
Despite the demands of operating a successful bakery, Mr. Betancur is also a tireless community leader and humanitarian. During the height of the COVID pandemic, Manolo’s Bakery donated thousands of cakes to Charlotteans who couldn’t afford birthday or anniversary celebrations.
Stepping up to help with humanitarian crises close to home and across the world, Mr. Betancur is currently spearheading an effort to build a new bakery in Ukraine, where the war is limiting the luxury of a strong and secure community many Americans enjoy and have never contemplated existing without.
A pillar of his philosophy in his service through small business ownership, Mr. Betancur said he knows firsthand the power of coming together and breaking bread for how it can work to resolve conflict – a piece of which he is working to bring to the people in paths of geopolitical uncertainty by providing food and baked goods and supporting productive ends to conflicts by any means feasible.
Mr. Betancur is also a dedicated advocate for immigration reform, using his bakery as a symbol of the strength and ingenuity of America’s immigrants. For his efforts, the International Baking Industry Expo named Betancur a 2021 “World Bread Awards Hero.”
Mr. Betancur credits his business for giving him the platform to be a changemaker. When asked what his business means to him and his humanitarian work, Betancur simply said, “Everything.”
Click here to read more about Manolo’s delicious and inspiring story in Charlotte Magazine, and join NSBA as we celebrate Mr. Betancur during this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month and his work every day for small business: nsba.biz/join
