Freddie Mac, one of the nation’s largest financial institutions, and McDonalds, the nation’s largest food service retailer, today announced a new agreement to create Computer Technology Centers in local McDonald’s stores in the southeastern United States.

The new collaboration focuses on increasing access to web-based information on such topics as financial literacy, mortgage financing, and how to buy a home. The computer centers will be incorporated into selected McDonald’s restaurants located in minority and low-to-moderate income communities.

Recent studies have indicated that minority, and low-to-moderate income households have lower levels of access to the Internet. At the end of last year, about 56 percent of all adults had Internet access, while only 43 percent of African-Americans and 47 percent of Hispanics had access. About 38 percent of American families who earn less than $30,000 a year had Internet access, while 72 percent of families with incomes between $50,000 and $70,000 had access. Gaps in homeownership rates are equally wide. The homeownership rate for African-Americans is only 46 percent and 47 percent for Hispanics, while the overall homeownership rate in America is over 67 percent.

As part of the new relationship, Freddie Mac will equip 25 McDonald’s restaurants in the southeastern United States with state-of-the-art personal computers and “quick-click” access to comprehensive Internet-based homeownership and credit management information. The homeownership and credit information made available at the centers can be found at www.freddiemac.com/homebuyers.

This new community-based initiative is part of Freddie Mac’s Summer of Homeownership, a concentrated effort to pioneer outreach initiatives, mortgage products, and technology that will help expand homeownership opportunities to an additional 250,000 to 400,000 families a year.

“This is a ground-breaking initiative that Freddie Mac is excited to work on with McDonald’s,” said Freddie Mac Senior Vice President for Corporate Relations Dwight P. Robinson. “By working together with McDonald’s, we will make it easier for potentially thousands of families to get information that will help them become homeowners.”

McDonald’s opened its first in-store Technology Center, which was also the first in the quick-service restaurant industry, last year as part of a completely rebuilt McDonald’s restaurant on Flat Shoals Road in Atlanta’s South DeKalb County. The recently rebuilt McDonald’s of Jonesboro at 7894 Tara Boulevard now joins the Flat Shoals Road restaurant as the first in the Atlanta area to include McDonald’s Technology Centers and the Freddie Mac website.

“At these two locations, McDonald’s and Freddie Mac are providing a practical community service at no cost to those without home computers, to those who just want to learn basic desktop skills, and to those seeking valuable homebuyer information,” said John Hurt, owner of Jonesboro’s Tara Boulevard McDonald’s and president of the Black McDonald’s Operators’ Association.

“The partnership with Freddie Mac that we’re launching today is a perfect fit since this effort meshes seamlessly with our plan to install technology centers in additional selected restaurants throughout the McDonald’s system,” added McDonald’s Regional Vice President Bill Lamar.

In addition to the on-line offerings, there will be a series of on-site services offered by community-based organizations that provide services in the McDonald’s restaurant service area. In some locations computer basics are taught in classes called “Technology-Tuesdays” for those who are not familiar with computers. Each class can hold up to eight participants. There are also homeownership and money-management classes that are held at various times and formats. These programs are run by Green Forest CDC, a local faith-based non-profit, and by D&E, Inc.

McDonald’s agreement with Freddie Mac is the first to involve access to specific Internet-based content through its Technology Center computers. Freddie Mac, which is committed to finding new ways to increase homeownership, has developed more than 100 pages of web-based information on the homeownership process, including real-world advice on how to avoid predatory lending practices.

“Freddie Mac believes that, as widespread as technology is in homes across America, there are still many families who do not have access to the Internet and who can’t take advantage of the breadth of information that’s there to improve their lives,” explained Robinson. “This initiative reaches out to people in a direct and accessible way that we know will produce positive results.”

The McDonald’s initiative has an important “quick click” feature. A user in the McDonald’s Technology Center will have the option of clicking a desktop icon that will launch the computer’s browser and bring up the first page of the homeownership content as the homepage. Alternatively, in keeping with the open-nature of the web and the goal of providing broad financial information and other content, users can launch the browser more traditionally and then go to whatever site they choose. (Note: McDonald’s Technology Centers have installed a variety of blocking software to close off objectionable sites.)

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to support homeownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac purchases single-family and multifamily residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage passthrough securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has opened the doors for one in six homebuyers and more than two million renters across America.

McDonald’s is the world’s leading foodservice retailer with more than 28,000 restaurants serving 25 million customers each day in 120 countries. Approximately 80 percent of McDonald’s restaurants are owned and operated by independent local businessmen and women.

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