Word: mcdonald
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...result, McDonald's stands out not only as one of the more socially responsible companies in America but also as one of the nation's few truly effective social engineers. Both its franchise operators, who own 83% of all McDonald's restaurants, and company officials sit on boards of local and national minority service organizations, allowing the company to claim that its total involvement in everything from the Urban League and the n.a.a.c.p. to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce may constitute the biggest volunteer program of any business in the nation...
Because their original prosperity came from hamburger stands in middle-class suburbs, McDonald's managers were at first reluctant to move into inner-city markets. But company executives say their first tentative steps in the '70s showed those fears to be unfounded. The policy practiced in the suburbs, which dictated that McDonald's stores reflect the communities in which they operate, was applied to the new urban markets. As a result, nearly 70% of McDonald's restaurant management and 25% of the company's executives are minorities and women, and so are about half its corporate department heads. This year...
Through a program devised by its store owners, the company has helped establish 153 Ronald McDonald Houses, named for the chain's trademark clown, where families of seriously ill children can stay while the child is undergoing extensive medical treatment, such as chemotherapy or bone-marrow transplants. Each house serves an average of 15 families who pay from $5 to $15 a night, if they can afford it. The local projects are supported by local fund drives, and all the money collected goes directly to the houses; McDonald's pays all administrative costs of the program, which extends to Canada...
...McDonald's broadest impact has been through its basic job-training system. Its 8,800 U.S. restaurants (there are an additional 3,600 overseas from Beijing to Belgrade) train American youth of every ethnic hue. "Sending a kid to the Army used to be the standard way to teach kids values, discipline, respect for authority, to be a member of a team, get to work on time, brush your teeth, comb your hair, clean your fingernails," says Ed Rensi. "Now, somehow, McDonald's has become the new entry-level job-training institution in America. We find ourselves doing things...
...conjunction with the vocational-rehabilitation services of several states, nearly 7,000 disabled and handicapped people have been trained to function as full McDonald's employees by job coaches drawn from within the company. Before these less fortunate employees take their places, company trainers often put young able-bodied workers in blindfolds, gloves or dark glasses to demonstrate the kind of handicaps their new colleagues have to deal with in doing the same jobs...