What it does
Thanks to generous donors and volunteers we provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and promote healing when children need healthcare. We do this through our three core programs, the ronald mcdonald house, the ronald mcdonald family room, and the ronald mcdonald care mobile. All services are provided free of charge.
When families face a child's illness their lives stop instantly, and parents enter a world of fear and worry. Our ronald mcdonald house programs enable families with a hospitalized child to stay together and by their child's side, removing some financial and other concerns so they can focus on their hospitalized child. Our programs provide comprehensive support and ensure no family ever feels isolated.our ronald mcdonald houses, located in arkansas (1 in little rock, 1 in ft. Smith, 1 in fayetteville) and louisiana (1 in shreveport) and our ronald mcdonald house family rooms located in arkansas (1 in little rock, 1 in rogers) provide families with a private room, meals, snacks, access to a fully equipped kitchen and pantry, laundry, indoor and outdoor play spaces, activities, and programs to support them. In 2025 our programs served 1,570 families. These families were provided with a free home away from home for a total of 19,205 nights; this also includes families for which we provided free nights in a local hotel (for families traveling to little rock for outpatient surgery or appointments). The average length of stay varied from 1 night (in the hotel) to 24 nights in our largest program, with some families staying over 200 nights. All services were provided free of charge.
Our ronald mcdonald house care mobile provides free dental care and oral health education to children in central arkansas who do not have access to a dentist. Comprehensive dental services are provided on the 40-ft state of the art and fully equipped mobile dental clinic by full-time staff including a dentist, hygienist, and dental assistant. It travels to select elementary schools in pulaski, saline, perry, faulkner, lonoke and grant counties, and in the summer, it operates at a pediatric medical clinic in the lowest-income zip code in little rock. In 2025, 281 children received 6,614 services. All services were provided free of charge.
The ronald mcdonald family room at uams serves families on the same floor as the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu), providing them with a place to rest and regroup, steps from their baby's room. It includes four overnight rooms, a tv lounge, dining room, kitchen, and play area for siblings. Families may stay overnight or visit for respite, meals, snacks, showers, laundry, daily essentials, educational programs and activities. It also provides the ability for caregivers to work remotely. In 2025, 562 families stayed in its guest rooms for a total of 1,006 nights, and there were 1,405 visits by additional nicu family members. All services are provided free of charge.