Community Heroes: Chef Cardie serving up meals, smiles and major donations to help the homeless
VERONA, N.J. -- We have a new segment highlighting community heroes, because we are #BetterTogether.
Today's hero is an accomplished chef from New Jersey who's using his culinary skills to feed the hungry and do so much much.
Charles Mortimer is best known as "Chef Cardie," and the New Jersey man lives up to his nickname.
He has decades of experience cooking professionally, but it's what the well-known, retired chef has done outside the kitchen he is most proud of. He has dedicated his life's work to helping the homeless and less fortunate.
"It's a labor of love," Mortimer said. "I am good at what I do, I am good at what I did, and I've left a mark along the way."
He told CBS2's John Dias he thrives to make a difference in his community.
At the Church of the Holy Spirit in Verona, he is making sure no one goes hungry. In 2016, he revamped its kitchen.
"It was even to the point that they were going to condemn it. It was that bad," he said. Iron rusted, you name it."
He paid to have a state-of-the-art-kitchen and food pantry installed, which now serve almost 200 families in need a month. He used his inheritance to pay for it, after his parents died.
The chef dedicated the kitchen to both of them. He says his mother told him to build it in a dream.
"It sums up everything that my mother would have wanted," he said. "She taught me everything about cooking, she's the one who sent me to culinary school."
Chef Cardie is also involved in the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, donating his time to tour around the country to teach young culinary students in both middle and high schools.
The New Jersey chef also started up "Culinary Therapy," putting on shows in hospitals, retirement homes and rehab centers all over for free. He says it's a way to help people look past their health issues and recall happier times through the act of cooking.
"They came in with their walkers, I cooked for them, and I made their day," he said.
Then, there is his 280-page cook book called: "Keep on Cookin."
"Every recipe has a personal story about my life," he said. "Because in 2010, I was paralyzed from the waist down after back surgery. I could not walk and I didn't think I would ever cook again."
It took him two years to write the book, and he hasn't seen a penny from the proceeds. That's because he donates all of it the "National Coalition for the Homeless" and has raised almost $100,000.
"Just an amazing compassionate person, who really believes in resolving the issue of homelessness around this country," said Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless Donald Whitehead.
Whitehead says Chef Cardie's donations have helped people across America.
"We have to be our neighbor's keeper, we have to go outside of ourself and help others who are less fortunate," said Whitehead. "Many people do not approach the issue in that way, but I am glad the chef did that and really impressed by him as a person."
Whitehead is not alone. Chef Cardie's volunteer work is now being praised by the US Congress. Recently, he was awarded a Congressional Award, which celebrates him as a hero.
"This is the highest honor I have ever gotten," he said. "It's just icing on the cake, that ya know what, I have done some things right in my life. I am not perfect, I have made many mistakes, but this is really very, very special."
What's next?
"I have never asked for fame and fortune," said Chef Cardie. "I am going to continue. This is not a swan song saying goodbye."
He says it's always going to be about keeping your heart in the right place.
