Two children having fun in a playground.

Serving our Communities

With more than 1,500 restaurants across the UK and Ireland – and each one rooted in its local community – little changes add up to a lot. 

Our Plan for Change brings multiple benefits to our communities. From food that’s sourced locally wherever possible, to a menu with more balanced options and less waste. But we know that how we’re stepping up directly for local people really brings it all home.  

Through our longstanding partnerships and new initiatives, we support communities, championing local and national campaigns, making a difference to people in every town we're located in the UK and Ireland.

Our commitment and goals

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Ronald McDonald House Charities® 

Achieved: Together with our customers and franchisees, raise £10 million a year for Ronald McDonald House Charities® UK up until 2025.

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BBC Children in Need

Raise £10 million for BBC Children in Need by 2026.

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Fun Football

Deliver 10.5 million hours of Fun Football coaching, recruit 100 female coaches and provide DE&I training to 800+ coaches by 2026.

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Happy Readers

Ongoing: Through our Happy Readers programme distribute a minimum of 7 million books across the UK and Ireland each year between 2023 and 2026.

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Food redistribution

Ongoing: Fund the redistribution of at least 1 million meals a year, every year, and connect our supply chain to FareShare to redistribute food waste and surplus.

Our partners

Family sitting on a bench in front of a mural.

Ronald McDonald House Charities

Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) enables families to stay together near specialist children’s hospitals when their child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. In 2024 we raised over £9 million for RMHC® in the UK and Ireland through donations, digital giving, instore fundraising and much more.

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The McDonald's logo next to the Children in Need logo on a red background.

BBC Children in Need

In 2021, we launched our partnership with BBC Children in Need with a commitment to raise £10 million by 2026. McDonald’s customers support the charity through MyMcDonald’s Rewards via the McDonald’s app, as well as donations at Kiosks and crew fundraising during fundraising months. Between 2022 and 2024 we have raised over £4 million for the charity to date, enabling BBC Children in Need to fund more youth worker projects and youth service workers as part of our Makin’ It programme to help improve the outcomes for thousands of young people across the UK.

Children having fun and playing football in brightly coloured bibs.

Fun Football

Our Fun Football programme has been proud to support families and communities across the UK since 2019, building on our commitment to supporting grassroots football through a number of programmes for over 20 years. Our goal is to support a further 10.5 million hours of football coaching for 1 million children aged between 5 and 11 across the UK by 2026, as well as recruit 100 women coaches and provide DE&I training to 800+ coaches. In 2024, we delivered over 2 million hours of free football coaching to over 200,000 children, and recruited 32 more female coaches, working with a number of new partners including British Blind Sport, Children in Need and Kick it Out, increasing the reach and accessibility of our free Fun Football opportunities to areas and kids with the greatest need. According to analysis by Children in Need, 86% of sessions take place in the UK’s most deprived communities, and we have an ambition to reach 95% in 2026.

Vicky Pattison and Pete Wicks pushing a trolley with food donations.

Food redistribution

With many families struggling to make ends meet we continue to support those in greatest need in our communities, funding the redistribution of food through a partnership with FareShare, who help save good food from going to waste. In 2024 McDonald’s and customers funded the redistribution of the equivalent of over 1.1 million meals. We also connected our supply chain to donate the equivalent of over 143,000 meals from 60 tonnes of surplus food. Our customers have helped us support the charity through donating MyMcDonald’s Rewards points on the McDonald’s App.

Two children reading a book together.

Happy Readers

Since 2013, our Happy Readers Programme and partnership with the National Literacy Trust has given millions of books to families without reading books at home. The programme celebrates the power of stories through activities in our restaurants and charity donations. We have made a three-year commitment to distribute a further 7 million books each year, from 2023 to 2026. In 2024, we distributed over 8 million Happy Readers books and gave away more than 500,000 World Book Day books across the UK and ROI. 

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The McDonald's logo next to the Prince's Countryside Fund logo.

Supporting rural communities and family farms

Since 2020, our partnership with The Royal Countryside Fund has focused on providing life-changing business and environmental skills training to over 500 farming families across the UK. The Ready for Change and Savings in Soil programmes form an important part of The Royal Countryside Fund’s commitment to improving the economic resilience of farming families. In 2025, McDonald's renewed its partnership with the Royal Countryside Fund.

Makin' It Happen

Our Makin’ It programme is all about providing young people from 13 years old with genuine opportunity in their communities. Together with our partners, we’re using the power of youth work to provide safe, welcoming spaces in our restaurants and funding music and football programmes to provide training, real-world experience and opportunities for young people in our communities.

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Keep it Clean

For over 40 years, McDonald’s has been helping to tackle litter in the communities we operate in. As well as our year-round litter activity, where all our restaurants carry out at least three litter patrols per day, we have continued to work with charities like Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Wales Tidy, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Hubbub to tackle litter in our communities.

Graphic highlighting the 5 pillars of McDonald's Plan for Change.

Our long-term goals in full

See the details behind our Plan.

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