Prepare a meal for our families under the direction of our culinary team.
You can support families through Meals from the Heart by preparing and serving a meal at Ronald McDonald House. Gather your coworkers, family, friends, church, or community group for a meaningful experience that provides families with a warm meal and more time to focus on what matters most — their child.
The ideal group size to prepare and serve a meal is up to 8 volunteers. Due to a lack of space, we will not be able to accommodate any additional helpers.
Each group that participates in our Meals from the Heart program makes a $450 tax-deductible donation to our
House at the time of booking to help provide the meal and support the program.
Payment for all Meals from the Heart meals can be made via credit card or check only. If you would like to pay by check, please contact Nicole Ethridge at [email protected].
A letter with your tax receipt for the full amount of your meal donation will be mailed to the individual or corporation
on the credit card/electronic checking account used to reserve the meal.
For the safety of our guest families, please stay home if there is a chance you might be sick. As many of our children have suppressed immune systems, all volunteers should be healthy and free of any flu-like symptoms, fever or exposure to any infectious disease.
Please wear closed-toe shoes. No sandals or high heels. We also ask that long hair be pulled back, or we can provide you with a hair net. We will also provide gloves.
Expect to be with us for four hours. This includes food prep, serving, eating and clean-up.
After serving our families, all Meals from the Heart volunteers will be able to sit down and enjoy the wonderful meal they have prepared!
Serving time: 12:00 p.m.
Time commitment: 10:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Serving time: 6:00 p.m.
Time commitment: 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Yes! If it is your group’s first time visiting our House, then a staff member will show you around the House before serving the meal.
Yes, once all guest families have been through the serving line, meal volunteers are welcome to serve themselves and join our families in the dining area. While the dining area will have many siblings and families enjoying the meal, the majority of patients are either inpatient at nearyby hospitals or, due to their treatment protocol, are isolated to their room in the House.
Of course! Pictures in our common areas or grounds are welcome. Out of respect for their privacy, photos of our guest families are not permitted without their written consent.
The time and energy you are putting towards your Meals from the Heart meal is already a wonderful gift to our families! However, if you would like to support our families in other ways, please consider bringing in items from our wish list! To protect the health of the children, we are unable to accept previously used items. All items must be new and unopened.
Absolutely. If you are a restaurant or catering company that would like to serve a meal, please contact us at 817.305.8372.
Due to the number of generous groups and companies that support our Meals from the Heart program, Ronald McDonald House is unable to contact the media regarding a particular meal. Individual groups are welcome to reach out to the media, but we ask that you please inform us that you have reached out to them so we can be sure we can provide you and the media with the best support during your time here.
Thank you for making a difference in the lives of our guest families by providing a Meal from the Heart! For questions, please contact our team at [email protected] or 817.305.8372.
