{"id":138182,"date":"2021-09-08T23:09:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T23:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=138182"},"modified":"2021-09-08T23:09:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T23:09:20","slug":"guatemalan-woman-behind-mcdonalds-happy-meal-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/guatemalan-woman-behind-mcdonalds-happy-meal-dies-at-87\/","title":{"rendered":"Guatemalan woman behind McDonald&apos;s Happy Meal dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Guatemalan woman credited with inventing the McDonald&#8217;s Happy Meal after opening country&#8217;s first franchise dies at 87<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Yolanda Fern\u00e1ndez de Cofi\u00f1o, known for her kid-friendly contributions to McDonald&#8217;s including the &#8216;Happy Meal&#8217; died on September 6 at the age of 87<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>She and her husband Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Cofi\u00f1o purchased the first McDonald&#8217;s in Guatemala in 1974, and they passed the business on to their children in 2018<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Soon after opening the restaurant, Cofi\u00f1o came up with the concept for a kids meals dubbed the &#8216;Ronald Menu&#8217;, that contained smaller portions for children\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>McDonald executives in Chicago loved the idea so much they adapted the concept in the states, leading to the birth of &#8216;The Happy Meal&#8217; in 1979<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cofi\u00f1o also came up with the concept of holding children&#8217;s parties at the restaurant<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Guatemalan woman credited with inventing McDonald&#8217;s iconic children&#8217;s Happy Meal has died at the age of 87.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yolanda Fern\u00e1ndez de Cofi\u00f1o, known for her kid friendly contributions to McDonalds that are now considered essential part of the restaurant&#8217;s brand, died on September 6 at the age of 87.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Affectionally known as Do\u00f1a Yoly,\u00a0Cofi\u00f1o was originally born in Chile in 1934 before she moved to Guatemala as a teenager when her father was appointed as an ambassador, Newsweek.com\u00a0reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cofi\u00f1o and her husband Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Cofi\u00f1o purchased the first McDonald&#8217;s in Guatemala in 1974 and ran it for four decades until passing the business on to their children in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after purchasing the McDonald&#8217;s she observed that menu item portions were too big for young children and came up with the concept for a kids meals, which she dubbed the &#8216;Ronald Menu&#8217; after the restaurant&#8217;s mascot Ronald McDonald.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/08\/21\/47672597-9971051-image-a-34_1631132215561.jpg\" height=\"637\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Yolanda Fern\u00e1ndez de Cofi\u00f1o, (pictured left) known for her kid-friendly contributions to McDonalds, including the &#8216;Happy Meal&#8217; died on September 6 at the age of 87<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/08\/21\/47673851-9971051-image-a-39_1631133433642.jpg\" height=\"477\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Yolanda Fern\u00e1ndez de Cofi\u00f1o, known for her kid friendly contributions to McDonalds that are now considered essential part of the restaurant&#8217;s brand, died on September 6 at the age of 87<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/08\/21\/47672603-9971051-image-a-35_1631132220314.jpg\" height=\"934\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>For her contributions Cofi\u00f1o (pictured left) was presented the &#8216;Ronald Award&#8217; by the company in 1982<\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;Ronald Menu&#8217; included a hamburger, small fries and a sundae to feed kids with more appropriate portions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McDonald executives in Chicago loved the idea so much they reached out to marketer Bob Bernstein to develop the concept to be adapted in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>It lead to the birth of &#8216;The Happy Meal&#8217; in 1979.<\/p>\n<p>The kids meal expanded on Cofi\u00f1o&#8217;s invention and contained more food options, came in a colorful box and most importantly for kids, contained a toy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For her contributions she was presented the &#8216;Ronald Award&#8217; by the company in 1982.<\/p>\n<p>But her ideas did not end there.<\/p>\n<p>Cofi\u00f1o also won a\u00a0&#8216;Ronald Award&#8217; years earlier for coming\u00a0<span>up with the concept of holding children&#8217;s parties at the restaurant, which has since become a go-to spot to celebrate for families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/08\/21\/47672613-9971051-image-a-36_1631132232380.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Cofi\u00f1o came up with the concept for a kids meals dubbed &#8216;Ronald Menu&#8217; that contained smaller portions for children<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/08\/21\/47672599-9971051-Cofi_o_and_her_husband_Jos_Mar_a_Cofi_o_purchased_the_first_McDo-a-13_1631134453258.jpg\" height=\"610\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p> Cofi\u00f1o and her husband Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Cofi\u00f1o purchased the first McDonald&#8217;s in Guatemala in 1974 until they passed the business on to their children in 2018 (pictured with her daughter\u00a0M\u00f3nica Cofi\u00f1o)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/08\/21\/47672609-9971051-image-a-37_1631132238160.jpg\" height=\"634\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>McDonald&#8217;s Guatemala honored Cofi\u00f1o with a post on Tuesday expressing their condolences for their matriarchs passing<\/p>\n<p>Cofi\u00f1o would go on to earn the restaurant&#8217;s highest honor when she\u00a0received the &#8216;Golden Arches&#8217; award, along with other national and international awards throughout her decades with the restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span>McDonald&#8217;s Guatemala honored Cofi\u00f1o with a post on Tuesday expressing their condolences for their matriarchs passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;McDonald&#8217;s Guatemala profoundly mourns the passing of our founder and president Yolanda Fern\u00e1ndez de Cofi\u00f1o,&#8217; they posted in Spanish.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Our sincerest condolences to her children, grandchildren, great-grand children and other family members.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This is without a doubt one of the saddest moments for her family, the business and her thousands of collaborators.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Thanks to a great woman, because her light will live forever in our hearts.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9971051\/Guatemalan-woman-credited-inventing-McDonalds-Happy-Meal-dies-87.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guatemalan woman credited with inventing the McDonald&#8217;s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":138181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Guatemalan woman behind McDonald&amp;apos;s Happy Meal dies at 87 - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/guatemalan-woman-behind-mcdonalds-happy-meal-dies-at-87\/\" 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