Supporting those affected by earthquakes in Turkey & Syria

This message was sent on behalf of Jon Banner & Jo Sempels to the McDonald’s Global System.

Over the last week, we’ve seen tremendous devastation in parts of Turkey and Syria as a result of earthquakes that are among the worst natural disasters we’ve seen in recent history. While there is still much work to be done to understand the full scale of this tragedy, it has always been in our nature to step up for communities in times like these.     

Our Response 
To aid the relief efforts, McDonald’s Corporation and McDonald’s Turkey are donating $1 million USD to relief efforts – including contributions to Save the Children, World Central Kitchen, and local nonprofits. This donation is in addition to McDonald’s long-standing annual $1 million donation to the Red Cross’ Annual Disaster Giving Program, which provides support to communities during disasters such as this one. 

We also want to recognize the selfless actions of the local team, who have worked tirelessly to care for the employees at the 29 restaurants operated by McDonald’s Turkey in the cities most affected as well as members of their communities. They are providing 100,000 free meals to earthquake victims and partnering with local organizations to charter buses to bring people to and from restaurants where they can access a free meal and a place to rest, as well as offering financial support to affected crew. 

Thank you to our DL partner Kamal Al Mana, Managing Director Mwaffak Kanjee and the McDonald’s Turkey team for their unwavering leadership during this incredibly challenging time. We talk often about what it means to put our people first – and they are demonstrating this in truly remarkable ways – especially as we mourn the loss of four local employees who did not survive the earthquakes. 

And thank you to our supplier partners, who have been instrumental in providing food, water and other critical items to restaurants that remain open in the disaster area.  

How You Can Help 
There’s a long road ahead for the communities that have been impacted – and not surprisingly, many of you have reached out over the past week asking how you can support relief efforts. If you would like to make a personal donation to the Red Cross, you may do so here. 

The power of our McDonald’s family is that in even the most difficult of times, we’re committed to feeding and fostering our communities when and how they need us most. Thank you to everyone who is helping provide support as those impacted begin the long road to recovery. On behalf of our entire McFamily, we will continue to keep everyone who has been affected by this tragedy in our thoughts.  

Jon and Jo