McDonald’s rallies around Ronald McDonald House Charities®, providing support to Chapters from coast to coast.

April 16, 2020


People holding McDonald's donations

As the Charity’s Founding Mission Partner, now more than ever, we stand by Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC®) and their commitment to help ensure families with hospitalized children receive the care and resources they need. As a global organization, RMHC relies on over 536,000 volunteers and millions of donors around the world to provide meals for families and participate in fundraising activities. Many RMHC Chapters have had to temporarily suspend volunteer programs and cancel fundraising events due to COVID-19.

Their mission of enabling family-centered care is close to all of our hearts at McDonald’s, and we’re inspired by the way our franchisees and suppliers are supporting RMHC Chapters across the country during this challenging time.

Franchisees are providing meals to families during a time when House programs are heavily relying on donations.

Several Memphis, Tenn. Owner/Operators, including Alex Piña, have been providing two meals per day to the families at the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis near St. Jude Children’s Hospital over the last few weeks. The team delivers 75 meals each time they make a donation, allowing children receiving medical care and their loved ones to enjoy breakfast and lunch as a family.

Crew members with meals donated to RMHC

Owner/Operator Maria Acosta and her family delivered Happy Meals and other delicious dinner options to dozens of families at two Ronald McDonald House programs in San Antonio, Texas. Maria is a year-round supporter of RMHC San Antonio, serving as Vice President on the organization’s Board of Directors. She explained, “We are a strong community...together, we’re going to get through this.”

Another Owner/Operator with a great deal of passion for the RMHC mission, Jim Booth, has been working with his team to deliver daily breakfast to his local House in Charleston, S.C. As a member of the Board of Directors for RMHC of Charleston, Jim knows how important food donations are while volunteer programs are on hold, and he’s grateful for his crew who are excited to help make a difference to community members who need it most.

Our suppliers are joining to show their support for RMHC.

In San Diego, Calif., McDonald’s supplier Tyson Foods and Owner/Operator Jamie Straza teamed up for a “McNugget Monday” meal donation, delivering 100 Happy Meals to families staying at RMHC San Diego. Tyson Foods is also coordinating “McNugget Mondays” to support RMHC Eastern Wisconsin with Owner/Operator Marshall Chay. Tyson has allocated an additional $5,000 to support food supply relief for families at RMHC Arkansas and RMHC Arkoma, allowing them to purchase meals from restaurants or grocery items.

Crew preparing food for donation

Simplot, one of our suppliers that provide potatoes for our iconic World Famous Fries, has been providing the Ronald McDonald House in Boise, Id. with produce such as fruits, vegetables and potatoes for cooking family meals. Simplot’s employees have also been supporting RMHC Idaho with donations to the Boise House COVID-19 fundraiser and grocery store gift cards.

Our supply team at the Anderson-DuBose Company partnered with six Ronald McDonald House programs across Ohio, Pa., N.Y., and W.Va. to provide regularly catered meals to all the families and staff, as well as a monetary donation. They said, “While we are unable to physically support the Houses by volunteering, we wanted to lend our helping hand in another way. We hope that our efforts bring hope to these individuals impacted and help alleviate the uncertainties and stresses being endured during this time.”

Culinary teams at Cargill, a supplier of our protein and oil, and Golden State Foods partnered to create a satellite kitchen and use McDonald’s products that might otherwise go to waste in imaginative ways to create meals for RMHC families. Think Chicken McNuggets as the base for orange chicken, or Filet-O-Fish as the base for fish tacos! They delivered these delicious meals to RMHC Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana.

Culinary teams at Cargill inside their satellite kitchen

“As a global organization that relies on volunteers and donors to achieve our mission of providing families a place to stay while their child undergoes medical treatment, support from the community and corporate partners like McDonald’s is more important than ever,” said Sheila Musolino, president and CEO, RMHC. “We’re grateful for these donations over the past few weeks as they have allowed our local Chapters to continue giving families strength and comfort when they need it most.”

We appreciate these members of our #McFamily providing meals and resources to RMHC year-round, and especially under these circumstances. If you’d like to support RMHC, please visit www.rmhc.org/ChapterRelief to make a monetary donation for the Chapter Emergency Response Fund.

About McDonald’s Corp. U.S. COVID-19 Relief Efforts

McDonald’s approach to challenging situations is guided by our belief that we are all in this together, and our system has come together in extraordinary ways to help each other, our customers and the communities we serve. In the U.S. we remain committed to leading by example as an organization, which is why we’ve donated $3.1 million in food to support local communities, made commitments to support truck drivers across the country, donated 1 million masks to Chicago and the state of Illinois and donated $1 Million to the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund to ensure non-profits in our home state have the supplies they need during this time. McDonald’s has always been a home base for our communities, and we’re proud to provide calm and comfort to them during this crisis. We are here to serve.

About Ronald McDonald House Charities

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), is a non-profit, 501 (c) (3) corporation that creates, finds, and supports programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families. Through its global network of over 275 Chapters in more than 65 countries and regions, and its three core programs: the Ronald McDonald House, the Ronald McDonald Family Room and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, RMHC helps families with ill or injured children stay together, and close to the medical care their child needs at leading hospitals worldwide.

RMHC programs not only provide access to quality health care, they enable family-centered care ensuring families are fully supported and actively involved in their children’s care. For more information, visit rmhc.org. Follow RMHC on TwitterFacebookInstagram and LinkedIn.

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