(Photo By Flickr User areta ekarafi)
With Veterans Day coming, this is the perfect time of year to express our community’s gratitude towards the United States military. For the second year in a row, McDonald’s® local owner/operators of Peoria/Bloomington, IL will do just that through the second annual “Buy One, Give One. McCafé® Coffee for Our Military” initiative.
In 2014, McDonald’s local owner-operators in the Peoria/Bloomington and Central Illinois area donated more than 400,000 cups of McCafé Coffee and over 5,000 handwritten letters from McDonald’s customers and area schools to be included in Operation Gratitude Care Packages during the first ever “Buy One. Give One. McCafé Coffee for Our Military” initiative.
This year, for every cup of coffee sold from November 2 through November 15, McDonald’s Restaurants of Peoria/Bloomington will match it, and send a cup to our active and veteran military members. The McCafé coffee will be sent in the form of fresh coffee grounds, so the recipients can brew it fresh whenever and wherever they would like.
To package and distribute the McCafé coffee overseas, the local owner/operators are partnering again with Operation Gratitude out of Van Nuys, CA. Operation Gratitude assembles over 100,000 care packages annually to say “Thank You,” and lift the spirits of our active and veteran military personnel.
”Our mission is to put a smile on our heroes’ faces and give every American an opportunity to express their gratitude to the men and women who put their lives on the line for all of us,” said Carolyn Blashek, founder and CEO of Operation Gratitude. “Many thanks to the McDonald’s local owner/operators of Peoria/Bloomington and Central Illinois for their generosity in bringing our program to this community.”
Along with the coffee donation, a selection of letters from Central Illinois-area schools will be included in the care packages. Every school in the area will have the opportunity to create and write these special notes that are cherished by the troops.
“Our military is so important to us, and we are extremely grateful for everything they have done for our nation, “ said Terry Clark, McDonald’s Restaurants of Peoria/Bloomington owner/operator. “We hope that our second annual “Buy One, Give One. McCafé Coffee For Our Military” initiative touches many of our active and veteran military personnel.”
Stop into any local McDonald’s Restaurants of Peoria/Bloomington location from November 2nd – November 15th and enjoy a cup of McCafé coffee.
About McDonald’s:
McDonald’s USA, LLC, serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients to more than 27 million customers every day. Nearly 90 percent of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by businessmen and women. Customers can now log online for free at approximately 11,500 participating Wi-Fi enabled McDonald’s U.S. restaurants. For more information, visit www.mcdonalds.com or follow us on Twitter at @MyPeoriaMcDs and any of the 39 McDonald’s Restaurants of Peoria/Bloomington Facebook pages.
About Operation Gratitude:
Operation Gratitude annually sends 100,000-plus care packages filled with snacks, entertainment, hygiene and hand-made items, plus personal letters of appreciation, to veterans, new recruits, first responders, wounded warriors, care givers and to individually named U.S. service members deployed overseas. Its mission is to lift the spirits and meet the evolving needs of our military and first responder communities, and provide volunteer opportunities for Americans to express their appreciation to all who serve. Each package contains donated product valued at $75-$100 and costs the organization $15 to assemble and ship. Since its inception in 2003, Operation Gratitude volunteers have shipped more than 1.3 million packages. www.operationgratitude.com
