The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers, or Kroc Centers, is a group of community centers run by

the Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

. The centres have been funded by

Joan Kroc Joan Beverly Kroc ( Mansfield, previously Smith; August 27, 1928 – October 12, 2003), also known as Joni, was an American philanthropist and third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc. Early life Joan Beverly Mansfield was born on August 27, 1 ...

, the widow of

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

restaurants executive

Ray Kroc Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman who was instrumental in turning McDonald's into the most successful global fast food corporation by revenue. He purchased it from the McDonald Brothers in ...

Kroc Center background

In 1998, Joan Kroc donated $87 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to the Salvation Army to build and endow the first Kroc Center in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, on what was an abandoned grocery store and other empty land. The center opened in June 2002. Currently, it is home to the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

's San Diego Wildcats. Upon her death in 2003, Kroc bequeathed $1.5 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ) to The Salvation Army solely for the purpose of establishing centers of opportunity, education, recreation and inspiration throughout the United States to be known as "Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers". The Kroc Center in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, broke ground in June 2006, and the Kroc Center in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, formally known as The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Center: A Center for Worship and Education, broke ground in 2007. The San Francisco Kroc Center received $53 million (equivalent to $ million in ). , there are 25 Kroc Centers across 20 US states, as well as one in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

Kroc Center work

The centers work to reach their local community with services including sports, health education, music, youth groups, counselling, financial literacy classes, food distribution and emergency help. Each center also holds at least one church service every week. Every year about five million people visit the Kroc Centers.Caring Magazine
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External links

Salvation Army/ Kroc Center website, Retrieved 2023-05-17
*List o
34 locations
either selected or under consideration; retrieved on 15 October 2006;
San Francisco Kroc center
retrieved on 15 October 2006;
The Kroc Center Coeur d'Alene
retrieved on 19 December 2008;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers The Salvation Army Organizations established in 2003 2003 establishments in the United States