Two North Carolina Restaurants Raise Over $70,000 For Ukraine Aid
After two successful fundraising events, The Barcelona Burger & Beer Garden and Aliño Pizzeria will donate $71,861 to World Central Kitchen for Ukraine aid. The total includes all revenue from The Barcelona Burger on Tuesday, March 8th. It also includes all revenue from Aliño Pizzeria on Wednesday, March 9th. The owner of both restaurants also provided a matching gift and $5,000 was donated by a friend of the restaurants.
“The message this week was, ‘Buy a good meal and help Ukrainian refugees.’ And many, many people came through,” says Michal Bay, owner of both restaurants. Both restaurants are located at Merino Mill, 500 S. Main Street in Mooresville.
The non-profit World Central Kitchen was founded by Chef José Andrés in 2010. They are consistently the first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. All while working to build resilient food systems with locally-led solutions. Currently, the WCK team is serving fresh meals to refugees in Ukraine, Poland, and Romania fleeing the war. Soon they will expand efforts into Moldova and Hungary.
“We’re so grateful to our customers for stepping up,” says Bay. “We are just one community, but we can accomplish so much for others.”
This isn’t the first time the pair of restaurants have stepped up to help. Aliño Pizzeria has previously given away about 9,700 complimentary pizzas on COVID Heroes Appreciation Days. Barcelona Burger gave away nearly 2,000 complimentary meals in October to COVID heroes. Those in Ukraine and the surrounding areas will appreciate the aid provided by World Central Kitchen.
