When you think of Stephen Curry, his unparalleled shooting skills and on-court success with the Golden State Warriors immediately come to mind. However, off the court, it is the Curry family’s dedication to philanthropy and community service that has left a lasting impact on the Bay Area and beyond. Together with his wife, Ayesha Curry, Stephen has built the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, a program that aims to provide children with access to nutritious meals, education, and healthy play. This initiative is transforming the lives of young people in underprivileged communities, ensuring that they have the resources they need to thrive.
On a cool, sunny day in East Oakland, the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation was at it again, revitalizing yet another schoolyard. This time, it was East Oakland Pride Elementary that was receiving the full treatment—a brand-new playground, a busload of books, and, of course, a fresh supply of nutritious meals for the children. As the sound of children’s laughter echoed across the playground, Stephen and Ayesha were on hand to discuss the foundation’s goals and the lasting impact it continues to make on the local community.
“Hello, hello, everybody! How are we doing?” Ayesha greeted the crowd with a warm, infectious energy that set the tone for the day’s events. “The energy in this room is exactly what it’s about—making sure you all feel seen, heard, loved, and have safe spaces to go and play. That’s what Eat. Learn. Play. is about.”
The foundation’s work is rooted in three key pillars: providing access to healthy food, promoting educational opportunities, and encouraging physical play. For Stephen and Ayesha, these aren’t just goals; they’re essential components for raising healthy, happy, and thriving children. “These are the three fundamental pillars of raising healthy, thriving children,” Stephen said. “For us, to be able to contribute to the community in that way and offer those things in a really simple, non-intimidating way is so important.”
As the conversation turned to sports, the Currys discussed the importance of play in children’s development, particularly in the world of sports. While many children are being pushed into specialized sports at younger and younger ages, Stephen and Ayesha firmly believe that children should be encouraged to explore a variety of sports. “Sports are such a beautiful environment for self-discovery, building confidence, community, and friendships,” Stephen explained. “It’s about trying new things and having fun.”
Stephen, who grew up playing a variety of sports, is an advocate for children staying engaged in multiple sports for as long as possible. “I’m biased, just because that was my experience growing up,” he said. “Diversification of developing those skill sets and meeting new people in different environments is so important. Burnout is a real thing, and it’s important to keep it fun as long as you can until the kid is able to decide what they want to do.”
Ayesha added that pushing children to specialize in one sport too early can create a dull and lackluster experience for them. “If you implement that at such a young age, everything becomes mundane and boring,” she said. “I wanted my girls to ride horses so badly, but then I had to take a step back and realize that they didn’t actually like it. Now my daughter is playing volleyball, and she’s thriving. She loves it.”
Sports, however, are not just about competition and winning. They are about building life skills—resilience, teamwork, and the ability to handle both success and failure. Stephen recalled his earliest memories of playing basketball, specifically a moment in first grade when he joined a three-on-three game on the blacktop at recess. “That to me was a core memory. I could just be a kid and play basketball without pressure. I also remember missing a free throw in my 10-and-under AAU tournament, and that was my first experience dealing with failure. The highs and lows of sports are great life teaching tools.”
The conversation then shifted to the broader impact of the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation. In partnership with ESPN, the foundation has been addressing the decline in youth participation in sports, particularly among children aged 6 to 12. According to a study by the Aspen Institute, just over 38% of children in this age group participated in regular sports in 2023, and the Currys are working to change that. In response, Eat. Learn. Play. and ESPN have launched the Takeback Sports initiative, with a commitment of $5 million to help children gain access to organized sports and physical activity.
Ayesha spoke about how the foundation’s work isn’t just about providing meals and sports opportunities but also about changing the mindset around what’s possible for these kids. “We’re creating a community where children feel seen and valued, where they have a safe space to grow and develop,” Ayesha said. “We want to show them that anything is possible.”
In addition to providing opportunities for play and education, Eat. Learn. Play. has also been instrumental in creating safe spaces for children in communities where those spaces are lacking. Ayesha discussed how it’s crucial for children to have somewhere to go after school, where they can not only play but also receive support and encouragement. “So many kids don’t have access to after-school programs or places to just be kids,” she explained. “By giving them these spaces, we’re creating environments where they can thrive.”
One of the key successes of the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation is its ability to work hand-in-hand with local communities to provide resources that directly address the unique needs of those communities. Whether it’s building playgrounds or providing access to educational resources, the foundation has made it clear that they’re in it for the long haul.
For Stephen, the work of the foundation is personal. “I was fortunate to grow up with access to opportunities—whether that was sports or education or just having a community that supported me,” he said. “Not every kid has that, and that’s why we’re doing this work. We want to make sure that every child has the same opportunities to succeed, to play, to learn, and to grow.”
The impact of Eat. Learn. Play. has been profound, not only in providing kids with the tools they need to succeed but also in inspiring them to dream big. By ensuring that children have access to nutritious meals, quality education, and plenty of opportunities to play, the foundation is giving them a solid foundation for a bright future.
Ayesha and Stephen’s commitment to making a difference goes beyond their professional lives. It’s a passion that runs deep, and they’re determined to continue transforming the lives of children throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Through their work with Eat. Learn. Play., the Currys are teaching us all the true meaning of community, generosity, and the power of play.
As the interview concluded, the Currys shared a message that encapsulates their mission: “It’s about making sure every child has the resources they need to thrive, and that starts with giving them the chance to play, to learn, and to eat well.” And with that, they’re not just changing the lives of children—they’re changing the world.
With Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, Ayesha And Stephen Curry Are Taking Their Philanthropy To The Next Level
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – JULY 18: (L-R) Ayesha Curry and Stephen Curry speak onstage at the launch of … More
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This week a newly refurbished basketball court opened in Oakland. It’s the latest move from the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, set up by Stephen and Ayesha Curry. The foundation, which officially launched last month, will be mainly focused on Oakland initially, as Chris Helfrich, the CEO of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, explained. “With the Warriors moving to San Francisco, Stephen and Ayesha felt very strongly that they did not want to leave Oakland behind. This is the place where they’ve done a lot of growing up, where they have grown a family, and it’s a place that feels like home.”
The Curry’s already have a track record of giving back to the Oakland area, as Nicholas Williams, the city’s Director of Parks, Recreation and Youth Development set out. “Steph has been vital to Oakland. He helped us to refurbish one of our gyms at the Bushrod recreation center and after he refurbished the gym he came back 6 or 8 months later and built a digital classroom and purchased laptops and technology for the center. He has always been very instrumental in giving back both in the realm of athletics for helping us to do the gym, but also saw the need to develop a classroom for learning.”
Stepping up their efforts
The launch of the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation represents a stepping up of these efforts. This summer they were the presenting partner of the Oakland Town Camp, the city’s summer camp for local kids. Just the Currys involvement alone helped the camp double in size this year, Williams said “the name alone attracts kids… Last year we averaged 400-500 kids a day, this year we averaged 900-1000 kids a day.” As well as providing the opportunity for kids to play, the foundation also funded a $50,000 scholarship, and provided over 25,000 healthy breakfasts, hitting each of the foundations three pillars.
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – JULY 18: (L-R) Ayesha Curry and Stephen Curry speak onstage at the launch of … More
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Those pillars — childhood hunger and nutrition, closing the college education gap, and ensuring kids have an opportunity to develop through play — were carefully chosen by the Currys, as Helfrich explains “They’ve been really thoughtful in terms of waiting until right now to launch the foundation when they feel like they have a grasp on their lives and the issues they care about.” On top of that, Helfrich says the Currys will continue to focus on equality and womens’ and girls issues, something they are already well known for, throughout the work of Eat. Learn. Play.
Maximizing their impact
With a profile like Stephen and Ayesha Curry have, there’s a lot of added value they can bring to bear on the issues they’ve selected. Helfrich talked through the approach they’re taking with the foundation. “The Currys are contributing seven figures every year and we’re going to raise additional money. And then it’s also how are we using their voice and their time? To have maximum impact we want to put those things to good use as well. Whether it’s around childhood hunger or around womens and girls equality issues the Currys have an amazing platform that we plan to utilize on behalf of the constituencies we’re trying to serve.”
So how does that look in practice? One organization they’ve partnered with is Share Our Strength, who run the No Kid Hungry campaign. Billy Shore, who founded the organization back in 1983, explained how their campaign, which is focused on ensuring children who are eligible for publicly funded school meals are actually getting them, works. “The key opportunity here in the US is 21 million kids get a free school lunch and all 21 million are eligible for breakfast but when we started this ten years ago only nine million were getting it. They’re all eligible for meals in the summer time but only three million get it. But the crazy thing is that the lunch is paid for for all 21 million through federal entitlement programmes with bipartisan support. What we do is go into communities and help them eliminate whatever barriers exist to getting kids school meals.”
The money that gets put in by foundations is effectively leveraged by Share Our Strength. “There’s this great multiplier effect to the funds we get from any foundation like Eat. Learn. Play.” Shore continues “The school meals themselves are 100% reimbursed. Let’s say a school district has 10,000 kids who are getting school meals and another 10,000 who are eligible and are not getting it, they add another 10,000 all of the food is paid for but they might need twice as many kitchen workers, they might need twice as much refrigeration, they might need twice as much equipment. Those are the things we pay for and they unlock those reimbursements for the actual food itself.”
The campaign has been working across the United States seeking to unlock this federal money to tackle childhood hunger. The Currys’ support in Oakland and the Bay Area is invaluable for Shore. “California is a state that has literally left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table in Washington D.C. because they haven’t got as many kids into these programmes as are eligible,” he says. “When you think about it that money is used to buy milk from their dairy farmers, bread from their bakers, to feed their own kids. So it has an additional multiplier effect that way as well.”
Using their platform
Using philanthropic money to unlock further funds is one way to make sure your donations go further. But the Currys have a unique platform that comes from being one of the most recognizable families in the United States, and beyond.
That’s a great fit for the No Kid Hungry campaign. They don’t just unlock the funds, they then use the evidence gathered to lobby politicians to take action themselves, as Shore explains. “We have a whole division here in our organization that works with governors and state legislatures to say we’ve shown what can happen in ten schools in Oakland or ten schools in San Francisco, why don’t you make this system-wide or state-wide?” A recent example of this is their success in Maine where “the governor has just signed legislation that says all schools that have more than 60% of their kids qualify for free or reduced price meals… must offer alternative breakfast which is more accessible to kids. Maine is probably one of a dozen states that have done this in the last two years.”
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – JULY 18: (L-R) Chris Helfrich, Ayesha Curry and Stephen Curry are seen at the … More
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The Currys are planning to throw their weight behind the causes they are funding, as Helfrich emphasizes. “Whether it’s at the local, state, or national level here we want to make sure that we use our voice to raise awareness about these issues and also mobilise our fans and supporters behind these critical issues so that we can have the impact that we desire.”
For Shore that impact could be huge with No Kid Hungry. “So much of it has to do with public awareness or public will. Unsurprisingly there aren’t that many people who are against feeding kids. Our biggest challenge usually has to do with indifference or lack of consistent attention on this issue. So when you have someone with the profile of the Currys who raise public awareness, who are very visible, who will catch the ear of policy makers then we’ve got an opportunity to really amp this up in a pretty big way.”
Serious about investing
One of the tell-tale signs of a serious approach in the non-profit sector is the controversial issue of organizational overheads. Helfrich elaborates on the topic “If you spend $20 million on an advertising campaign and your revenue goes up $50 million overnight you’re going to be on the cover of Forbes! But if you spend $20 million to raise $50 million in the non-profit world there’s a New York Times investigation.”
So where do the Currys come down on this? “They recognize how important the overhead is but they’re aware that it’s a key issue for a lot of donors,” Helfrich says, “so they’re excited to pay for the overheads so that every dollar that people contribute goes directly to the kids and programmes that we’re supporting.”
The Currys’ presence
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – JULY 18: Ayesha Curry and Stephen Curry are seen at the launch of Eat. Learn. … More
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But beyond the investment of money and the use of their platform, Steph and Ayesha Curry are also putting in their time. And that’s like magic to so many of the kids they meet. “It means a lot to the kids when a figure like Steph and Ayesha actually come out and spend time with them,” Williams explains, “It helps to validate the kids that they are important and someone like Steph would take time out of his busy day and schedule and actually spend time and interact with them.”
