Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers | |
 Kroc Center Station, Silver Line, Grand Rapids, Michigan | |
| Nickname | Kroc Center |
|---|---|
Region served | United States |
Parent organization | The Salvation Army |
| Website | kroccenter |
The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers, or Kroc Centers, is a group of community centers run by the Salvation Army. [1] [2]
The centres have been funded by Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald's restaurants executive Ray Kroc.
In 1998, Joan Kroc donated $87 million (equivalent to $163 million in 2023) to the Salvation Army to build and endow the first Kroc Center in San Diego, California, 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's San Diego Wildcats.
Upon her death in 2003, Kroc bequeathed $1.5 billion (equivalent to $3 billion in 2023) 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". [3] [4] [5]
The Kroc Center in San Francisco, California, broke ground in June 2006, and the Kroc Center in Atlanta, Georgia, 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 $99 million in 2023).
In 2023, there are 25 Kroc Centers across 20 US states, as well as one in Puerto Rico. [6]
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. [7] [8] [9] Each center also holds at least one church service every week. [10]
Every year about five million people visit the Kroc Centers. [11]
The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organization headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organization reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7 million, consisting of soldiers, officers, and adherents who are collectively known as salvationists. Its founders sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute, and hungry by meeting both their "physical and spiritual needs". It is present in 133 countries, running charity shops, operating shelters for the homeless, and disaster relief and humanitarian aid to developing countries.
Raymond Albert Kroc was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 from the McDonald brothers and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turning it into the most successful fast food corporation in the world by revenue.
Joan Beverly Kroc, also known as Joni, was an American philanthropist and third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc.
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James Ellis is an American swim coach who founded the PDR swim team just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as one of the few predominantly Black swim teams largely for intercity youth. He coached the team from 1971 to 2008, at Nicetown's Marcus Foster Recreation Center outside Philadelphia then moved the team to Nicetown's newly built Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center from 2010-2023 where it became affiliated with the Salvation Army Kroc Center. The 2007 feature film Pride is based on his life story, and focused a great deal of attention on the accomplishments of his swimming program.
David Cortright is an American scholar and peace activist. He is a Vietnam veteran who is currently Professor Emeritus and special adviser for policy studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 22 books. Cortright has a long history of public advocacy for disarmament and the prevention of war.
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The 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Center Coeur d'Alene has been designed to serve as a place of gathering and enrichment houses an array of education, sports, faith, arts and supportive programs.
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The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. Starring Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, the film depicts the story of his creation of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain, which eventually involved forcing out the company's original founders to take control with conniving ruthlessness. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as McDonald's founders Richard and Maurice McDonald, alongside Linda Cardellini as Ray Kroc's third wife Joan Smith, and B. J. Novak as McDonald's president and chief executive Harry J. Sonneborn.
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