McDonald’s franchisees and suppliers continue to support Ronald McDonald House Charities® Chapters

Like many other nonprofit organizations, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC®) and its programs have been severely impacted by COVID-19. While RMHC remains committed to ensuring families with hospitalized children receive the care and resources they need, many local Chapters are still unable to welcome volunteers who typically provide meals and support other fundraising efforts. As the Charity’s Founding Mission Partner, McDonald’s and members of our McFamily continue finding ways to support the families that rely on RMHC.

While volunteer programs are postponed, Owner/Operators are donating food to make sure families receiving medical care can still eat together without the stress of cooking or expense of dining out.

Owner/Operators Chris Montante and Mark Furr have been donating meals every week to the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore. This weekly McDonald’s meal has become something for kids and families staying at the House to look forward to, ultimately providing a sense of normalcy during especially difficult times. Chris and Mark are year-round supporters of RMHC Maryland, with Mark serving on the organization’s Board of Directors.

And while Friday’s may look a little different for many people right now, Owner/Operators are helping families served by RMHC Chapters in South Carolina and Ohio celebrate the start of the weekend with a delicious weekly meal donation. Each Friday, Columbia, S.C., franchisees BJ and Edna Langley are providing breakfast and lunch for their local Ronald McDonald House, while Columbus, Ohio Owner/Operator Roger Smith and his team donate lunch and dinner to their nearest House. These weekly deliveries help RMHC families enjoy moments together over a meal with their children after a long day of medical treatments or tests.

Philadelphia Owner/Operators Donna and Mike Abbonizio wanted to ensure families served by RMHC of the Philadelphia Region knew the community was thinking of them. They delivered a large donation of McDonald’s favorites from their five restaurants along with some sweet treats, hoping to bring smiles to families and Chapter staff. Donna is a proud, longtime supporter of Chapter, serving on the organization’s Board of Directors for the past four years.

In addition to food donations, our teams are supporting RMHC by providing much-needed supplies. McDonald’s had 2,500 hand sanitizers that were originally intended to be distributed at the annual McDonald’s All-American Games event, which was cancelled due to COVID restrictions. In partnership with the Houston franchisee co-op, McDonald’s decided to donate the hand sanitizers to the Ronald McDonald House Houston and Ronald McDonald House of Galveston, Texas, and added on two gaming chairs and consoles as a fun surprise for the families.

Our suppliers are also stepping up to support local RMHC chapters.

When RMHC of Eastern Wisconsin mentioned a need for more robust Lunch-2-Go items, our supplier Schreiber Foods immediately asked, “What do you need? How can we help?” Over the last six weeks, the team at Schreiber have donated nearly 600,000 yogurt tubes and cheese that have helped provide guest families with nutritious lunches. Meanwhile in Pittsburgh, another valued supply chain partner, Armada, has been providing catered meals to feed both families and staff at RMHC of Pittsburgh and Morgantown so they can continue focusing on supporting the children receiving medical care.

Cargill, a longtime supplier of McDonald’s protein and oil, is collaborating with their customer, Sysco, to provide fruit and vegetables to the two Ronald McDonald House programs in Minneapolis. In addition, Cargill is providing loaves of bread, garlic bread, hot dog buns, biscuits and bagels from their bakery lab to help feed the families. One Cargill team member explained they company has “master bakers” on their research and development team who cook up the food for the donations, saying, “It provides a wonderful use of their skills!” 

Another priceless donation our suppliers are making is the donation of time. Our vendor partner, John Anderson Construction, has been volunteering by taking on a major renovation at the Ronald McDonald House in Reno, Nev. The team has been renovating all 12 bedrooms and have even been able to get other local subcontractors and vendors to donate time and materials for the project. Because the House is currently vacant due to restrictions implemented by government and health organizations, the project can be fast-tracked, with the project scheduled to be complete and ready to be enjoyed by families by the end of June!

Every day we come together for the communities we serve – through our food, our restaurants, our people and partners. We are grateful for the way our System has always worked together to meet the needs of RMHC Chapter across the country, especially now and as we recover from the crisis.

If you’d like to support local RMHC Chapters, 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. We’re committed to caring for local heroes who are caring for our country, which is why we’re honored to have served nearly 12 million free Thank You Meals to first responders, a value of more than $63 million. We continue to lead by example as an organization during these unprecedented times, which is why we’ve also donated over $6.7 million in food to support local communities, made commitments to support truck drivers across the country, donated 1 million N95 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 throughout 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 Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.