Manolo Betancur grew up in a small town in Colombia, watching American TV and dreaming of living in the United States. Today he's a U.S. citizen, the owner of Manolo's Bakery on Central Avenue, and one of the best-known faces in Charlotte.
In 2021, the World Bread Awards USA named him the overall winner of its Bread Heroes campaign. In 2026, his story reached the big screen with The ChangeBaker, a documentary about his life and his giving that premiered to a sold-out Carolina Theatre in Charlotte.
The giving is the part people in Charlotte know best. Every couple of weeks, Manolo loads sheet cakes into his car and takes them to a community birthday celebration for neighbors experiencing homelessness, where guests also get a hot meal, a haircut and gifts. “It's about human dignity,” he told Spectrum News. He has also sent bread to Ukraine and to western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
One card for everyone he meets
Someone like Manolo meets dozens of people a week: customers, partners, volunteers, reporters. Paper cards run out, and contacts get lost. Now Manolo shares his contact with a Zolu card. One tap or a quick scan, and people have his number, his links and his story saved on their phone, with no app.
His bakery and his café, Higher Grounds, run their loyalty programs on Zolu too. The same tool now serves the owner, the businesses and the community around them.
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