Local chef will travel to Ukraine border to help feed refugees

CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte chef is taking his talents to the Poland-Ukraine border to help feed refugees who have fled their homes in the war-stricken country.

Ernie Adler normally prepares and cooks for his catering business, Ernie’s Smokehouse, but is now on an international mission.

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“It doesn’t matter where you go in the world,” Adler said. “You don’t speak the language? It doesn’t matter. You can still sit down with anybody and share a meal.”

He will volunteer to cook and deliver meals through the nonprofit World Central Kitchen.

“It just hit me in a different way than every other conflict,” Adler told Channel 9′s Erika Jackson. “And I thought, ‘OK, what can I do to help?’”

Adler said the hardship endured by Ukrainians hits home after learning his ancestors were from Ukraine, Russia and Poland.

The motivation to volunteer is part of being human, Adler said.

“If I can just help a few people do nothing else but just have a good hot meal and try to help them put their world back together, it’ll make me feel good,” Adler said.

Ukranine-native Zhenya Goncharov is back in the U.S. helping people from his home country.

“The most memorable part of my trip is to give some of the supplies directly to the people who are serving in the frontlines. And it was a very humbling experience,” he said.

Channel 9 reported in March that Goncharov was collecting bulletproof helmets and vests for refugees.

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Channel 9 viewers stepped up to donate.

He spent a week delivering those donations to families on the front lines.

“At least five stories that we heard of people actually being saved by these bulletproof vests,” Goncharov said. “So the bullet hit them either in the front or in the back, and the bulletproof vests protected them.”

The chef said his trip will last about 10 days.

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