Inside Philanthropy Interview: Eat. Learn. Play. A Sitdown with Stephen and Ayesha Curry on Giving Back

By Ade Adeniji | February 20, 2025 (as printed in Inside Philanthropy)

After a multi-day storm slammed the Golden State, bringing much needed rain to Southern California, I headed upstate to the Bay Area for the NBA All-Star Weekend, nirvana for this lifelong hoops junkie. I was also in the Bay to check in on Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s Eat. Learn. Play., their public charity that takes a three-pronged approach to empowering youth across Oakland’s public school system, focusing on improving playspaces, food and educational opportunities.

In partnership with the NBA, the NBA Players Association, the Golden State Warriors and donors including Kaiser Permanente, Eat. Learn. Play. hosted a Day of Service at East Oakland Pride Elementary School. It was a homecoming of sorts for Stephen and Ayesha Curry— the Golden State Warriors called Oakland their home for some five decades, and Curry himself hoisted three championship trophies there, before winning a fourth in 2022 after the team moved to San Francisco’s Chase Center. 

The NBA superstar was flanked by old teammates, including former Finals MVP Andre Iguodala and master of the midrange Shaun Livingston. Hugs and high fives were exchanged as over 300 youth and adult volunteers came together to put the finishing touches on a revamped East Oakland Pride, which now sports a new schoolyard with a nature exploration area and a library stocked with culturally affirming books. (Tech billionaire Aneel Bhusri, one of the first supporters of Eat. Learn. Play., also showed up.) 

After the ceremony, I caught up with the Currys to find out what was new with Eat. Learn. Play. I last interviewed the NBA power couple over Zoom back in 2023. This go around, in a small trailer, I sat in a chair across from the Currys and Eat. Learn. Play. CEO Chris Helfrich as I found out about the foundation’s new “whole child, whole school” approach to revamping Oakland’s public schools, Ayesha’s continued passion for healthy foods, and the 36-year-old Stephen Curry’s plans for philanthropy as he looks ahead to what happens once he finally retires.

The Currys have planted a flag to stay connected to Oakland

Having earned some $110 million last year as of October, Stephen Curry is still going strong as one of sports’ highest-paid and most recognizable athletes. He said that when he and Ayesha first started Eat. Learn. Play. in 2019, it was with the explicit purpose of planting a flag in Oakland. And even though he now plays across the bridge in San Francisco, Eat. Learn. Play. is a key way he stays connected to the community.

“Oakland was where our commitment and our investment is going to be, and we try to follow through on that. And I think we’ve — pat ourselves on the back — but we love the success and the impact that we’ve had so far,” Curry said. “Knowing we try to listen to the community, listen to the school district, get educated on where meaningful impact can be — and our team has been awesome and it’s been cool to know we’re following through.”

About a 15-minute drive from Downtown Oakland, East Oakland Pride Elementary School hosts the 17th schoolyard the foundation has remodeled in the city so far. Helfrich said that after this remodel, the  plan is to do another six this year. But he also clarified that Eat. Learn. Play. is directly engaged with every elementary school across Oakland Unified, providing one-on-one professional tutoring all year to students who are behind in reading.

“We distribute books to kids at every school across the district. And so the schoolyard stuff we’re only able to do — you know — six or seven of those a year,” Helfrich said. “But we’re active across the entire district, so that every kid, hopefully, is feeling the support that the Currys are providing them, trying to make sure they’ve got the best possible childhoods.”

Eat. Learn. Play. has also engaged in research to further refine its “Learn” pillar. It’s one of the organizations behind the Advancing Literacy Efforts in Oakland Report in partnership with the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Oakland Literacy Coalition and Being Human, featuring guidance and perspectives from leaders in literacy and early childhood efforts in Oakland and nationwide. 

Ayesha Curry emphasized the importance of early intervention in improving outcomes for youth, a theme that motivates early childhood philanthropy writ large. “We’re really locked in right now to our literacy arm and making sure that we’re getting kids reading, especially that kindergarten through third grade [level]” she said.

“And then I think, definitely, with the state of our government, what’s going to be really important going forward for the next couple of years is really making sure that we keep and build upon the infrastructure when it comes to school lunch and the education system, and just making sure that things stay stable there.”

Eat. Learn. Play.’s “whole child, whole school” approach

According to a 2023 Families in Action for Quality Education report, Oakland Public schools are 14 percentage points behind the state average in student reading outcomes. In addition, only 3.3 out of every 10 students in Oakland are able to read on par with their grade level, compared to 50% statewide.

On top of its core pillars — healthy food, education and youth recreation —  the foundation has also now implemented a “whole-child, whole-school” approach, which Helfrich called not so much a shift but a refinement of the foundation’s core work. One side of the coin is making sure kids have the support and resources they need, and the other side is building high-quality institutions. “So we’re doing what we can to transform the spaces within the school where kids are eating, learning and playing every day,” he said, adding that the ultimate goal is to “transform the public school experience for this generation.” 

Eventually, the Currys want to take their model and the lessons they’ve learned nationwide, but made it clear they will leave no stone unturned in Oakland. “Hopefully, you can address specific problems and needs [in] other places around the country. But I don’t know. We’re not rushing to that goal, just making sure that we stay fully committed to what we’re doing here,” Stephen Curry said. 

Policy advocacy is one way Eat. Learn. Play. has been active on the national level. A few years ago, during the pandemic, Ayesha Curry gave a virtual testimony in front of the House Rules Committee in conjunction with No Kid Hungry, an organization she’s been involved with for years. “I think [this] is where we show up nationally. But for now and for the foreseeable future, our focus truly is on Oakland and OUSD,” Ayesha said. 

A chef and restaurateur, Ayesha still has a strong interest in the foundation’s “Eat” pillar, but has recently been digging into the foundation’s literacy work. During the pandemic, Eat. Learn. Play. aimed to make sure Oakland students and their families had access to nutritious food, even as remote learning took hold. Right now, Helfrich added, the foundation is going on a research and listening tour to see what the future looks like for the “Eat” pillar. 

A superstar’s next chapter: What’s next for Stephen Curry’s philanthropy?

Stephen Curry’s stop at East Oakland Pride was one of many activities he took part in as unofficial ambassador for this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend, before the sharpshooter accepted the Kobe Bryant MVP Trophy in Sunday’s game. 

But for a few hours, Stephen made East Oakland home, as students who didn’t make it down to the playground peered out of their classroom windows like Ralphie and his pals in “A Christmas Story.” 

As our conversation came to a close, I asked Curry about his work with Howard University’s golf program. Skilled on the green and not just the courts, Curry has said that golf is a real way of making connections in the business world — and that diversifying the sport could have more wide-reaching implications.

In 2019, Curry made a seven-figure donation to Howard University to launch the first-ever men’s and women’s Division I golf program in the HBCU’s century-and-a-half history. Aware of this history, he even made the gift announcement at Langston Golf Course in Washington, a historically Black country club that was built in 1939 during segregation and bears the name of the first Black American elected to Congress in Virginia. The gift funds scholarships for students and in conjunction with Curry Brand and Under Armour, Howard student-athletes receive equipment and gear to play in a sport that has a high barrier to entry given all the equipment costs and course fees. 

Curry’s Underrated Golf Tour in the United States, and now in Europe, focuses on expanding the sport and eliminating barriers to entry in marginalized communities. He calls it a “grassroots” movement that aims to get youth involved from a young age, as well as provide wraparound services. “You want to give them a well-rounded life and workforce skillset that they can translate to other opportunities and other doors that may open through sports, through their participation in that lane,” Curry said. “So it’s been going great, like a lot of kids have been impacted by the tour, as well. So it’s been cool.”

It’s always tough to think of a career as great as Curry’s coming to an end, but in the final few moments of our conversation, we talked about what comes next. Curry first said he was eager for the opportunity to show up even more in person. Seeing all the people who came out to East Oakland Pride made him reflect on how long he’s been with the Golden State Warriors — a rarity these days in a league where stars no longer remain with one team for their entire career.

“I guess the only thing it really does is give me perspective on how long we’ve been in the Bay, how long Oakland has supported what we do with the Warriors franchise and my career, and just the love that I feel from that, and it just reinvigorates the work that we’re doing on days like today, where it all kind of comes full circle,” Curry said.