Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers

The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers, or Kroc Centers, is a group of community centers run by the Salvation Army.^[1][2]

Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers

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.org

The centres have been funded by Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald's restaurants executive Ray Kroc.

Kroc Center background

In 1998, Joan Kroc donated $87 million (equivalent to $168 million in 2024) 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 2024) 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 $102 million in 2024).

As of 2023^[update], there are 25 Kroc Centers across 20 US states, as well as one in Puerto Rico.^[6]

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.^[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]

External links

• Salvation Army/ Kroc Center website, Retrieved 2023-05-17
• List of 34 locations either selected or under consideration; retrieved on 15 October 2006; Archived 13 September 2006 at archive.today
• San Francisco Kroc center retrieved on 15 October 2006; Archived 14 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
• The Kroc Center Coeur d'Alene retrieved on 19 December 2008; Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• PR Newswire, financial report 2015