Stephen and Ayesha Curry maintain presence in Oakland through Eat. Learn. Play.

OAKLAND, Calif. – A young girl from Madison Park Academy approached Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry’s wife, eager to offer appreciation during the 12th annual “Christmas with the Currys” event.

“Are you Ayesha Curry?” the young girl asked.

“I was like, ‘yes.’ And she was like, ‘I ate your meals at my soccer program,’ ” Ayesha Curry told Andscape. “And I was like, ‘Oh.’ She’s like, ‘I really like the burritos.’ And just the fact that she had the awareness of where the food was coming from and just the thought to be a kid and be like, ‘Hey, thank you,’ … one, it’s a very heartwarming, appreciated. But also, I hate the thought of a child having to have that wherewithal or that knowledge of the fact that they needed to get a meal to go to soccer. But we do encounter that all the time…

“I would say it happens more often than I think we realized it would happen. Whether it’s a family that went to a particular school that we touched, or a teacher who says that we impacted her classroom in the way that he or she is able to go about their curriculum and teach their students. Or we’ve even run into some people who are on staff at some of the schools and they’re like, ‘I went to school there and I went through the program and I graduated and I came back and I see the change. So, thank you.’ So that’s been interesting as well. And then today was really cool, heartwarming, but also, it’s what always adds fuel to my fire of wanting to do more.”

Through their Eat. Learn. Play. program, the Currys stunned more than 200 Oakland students at Madison Park Academy with their presence at a holiday celebration that included painting, a petting zoo, food, a bounce house and an appearance by the Warriors girls and their deejay D-Sharp. During the event, Eat. Learn. Play. announced its newest initiative to renovate elementary school libraries throughout Oakland Unified School District, beginning in 2025 with Madison Park Academy. The program is also renovating the playground at the elementary school.

The Currys started Eat. Learn. Play. in 2019 with the aim of improving the lives of children and families, primarily in Oakland. The focus has been on giving every child in need access to nutritious food, resources to learn and enjoy reading, and safe and beautiful places to engage in physical fitness. Five years into the Oakland-based program, the Currys see the dividends of their beloved labor paying off, as evidenced by the young girl’s appreciation.

“Just trying to bring joy to the kids in a lot of different ways, not only with the resources that they get, the take homes that they get, the books that they get, but just for them to have just a fun oasis for however long they get to spend going to all the different stations and just for them to get immersed in it and be present,” Stephen Curry said. “So, we’ve seen the joy and the smiles and the laughter, the sounds from the kids, the feedback from the teachers on how much this means for their kids to be able to express themselves that way, the volunteers to come to actually see their person and the work that they put in and what it means for that reaction from all the kids. All of it matters. And it’s just joy through the holiday season for sure. And it’s the 12th year doing it. So, we want to keep going…

“Then for the results to kind of show up — with all the places that we’ve been able to refurbish, the goals even for next year, the amount of schools we’ve been able to touch, the amount of books we’ve been able to put in kids’ hands, the amount of meals that’ve been able to go out the door — all of it is truly powerful. And you feel the love from people who have been touched by it.”

Said Eat. Learn. Play. president and CEO Chris Helfrich: “All of these kids that we hear from, they all feel like they know Ayesha and Stephen. They’re a part of their lives and they feel seen. And that comes across in this feedback that we get, that they feel like they know the Currys. And I think that’s because they’ve been so consistent about it and because they’re present every time, they’re around kids in this community. There’s a real special connection there.”

The Currys’ love for Oakland began when the star guard began his NBA career with the Warriors in 2009 as the eighth overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft. Ayesha came to the San Francisco Bay Area with Stephen and they were married in 2011. In Oakland with Golden State, Curry won three of his four NBA championships, two NBA Most Valuable Player awards, made six of his 10 NBA All-Star appearances and became an adopted son loved by the locals. The Currys also once lived in Oakland’s Jack London Square in a high-rise condominium with their first born, Riley, and were known to enjoy the local restaurants. Stephen Curry starred at Oakland’s Oracle Arena before the franchise moved to San Francisco in 2019.

While the Warriors moved to San Francisco, the Currys’ heart and commitment to helping the youth remained in Oakland.

“Knowing how things have changed since the moved to San Francisco and the logistics of all that, we knew we wanted to maintain our presence here in Oakland,” Stephen Curry said. “Eat. Learn. Play. is making sure we planted our flag here with our commitment to the Oakland Unified School District…

“This is the community that supported us since 2009. And I remember I used to take all the back roads to get to Oracle [Arena], and you had different energy. And so, you understand the nostalgia that it brings, but also the excitement of even though things have changed drastically, we still have a supreme presence here and want to maintain that for a while.”

Eat. Learn. Play. says it is providing more than $2 million in resources and support to students and families this holiday season. Throughout December, Oakland Unified School District students and their families attended Eat. Learn. Play. holiday events and surprise pop-up book fairs where books and gifts were given by the organization and its partners. There was a $200,000 gift from Safeway Foundation for 1,000 Oakland families in need to receive Safeway gift cards this holiday season. For the fifth year in a row, Eat. Learn. Play. provided a holiday gift to all 18,000 Oakland elementary school students.

“Eat. Learn. Play., the Currys and all their amazing partners have made transformational change in the City of Oakland,” said John Sasaki, director of communications for the Oakland Unified School District. “It has impacted thousands of kids and our staff. It has improved 17 of our playgrounds. They’ve invested in literacy, they’ve invested in our food services, our nutrition services.

“Eat. Learn. Play. embodies what they’re doing. They’re trying to help us create well fed, well educated, really thoughtful, critical thinking leaders of tomorrow. And they’re doing it with every aspect of what we do in our schools. They’re teaching, they’re feeding, they’re helping kids play. They’re doing all that we need here in Oakland.”

Sasaki, for good reason, is mostly ecstatic about Eat. Learn. Play.’s emphasis on reading.

Sasaki said 85% of children of color in Oakland are not reading at grade level and 40% of students are reading two grades behind. On this day, the Currys surprised over 200 elementary school students with a curated selection of age-appropriate and diverse books. Each student was also given an Under Armour backpack filled with school supplies.

“When we know you can draw a straight line between a kid’s ability to read well in elementary school and success in life,” Sasaki said. “Tutoring works. But when your kids struggle academically, you have the resources to give them the support they need to catch up. It’s just not available at scale in a community like this. But we’re trying to change that.

“And so, we’re making a big bet to try to ensure that all kids who are behind in reading, especially those kids who are furthest behind in reading, get the one-on-one support throughout the year that they need to catch up. And when we do this, it will help to improve and transform countless lives in this community, which we think will have generational impact.”

Stephen Curry is the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry. Stephen Curry and his siblings, Charlotte Hornets guard Seth Curry and Sydel Curry-Lee, grew up going to their father’s team charity and his charitable foundation events. In 1998, Dell Curry established the Dell Curry Foundation, a youth program in Charlotte that opened five learning centers to provide educational training and drug abuse counseling.

While Stephen Curry acknowledged growing up privileged as a child, he said going to charitable and foundation events with his father helped him learn the importance of helping others.

“I always talk about going to my dad’s computer learning centers in Charlotte that he created when we were living there,” Stephen Curry said. “I didn’t know the scale or the ramification of what he was doing, but you go volunteer for an hour or two and you got to see the appreciation of just having access to a computer. You don’t want to take that for granted.”

When possible, Stephen and Ayesha Curry love to include their four children in their charitable events.

The Curry children — Riley, 12, Ryan, 9, Canon, 6, and baby Caius, 7 months — did not attend this particular event because it was on a school day. Ayesha Curry believes their charitable events are having a positive effect on their children and that they regularly speak to their children about the importance of helping the less fortunate.

“Canon has started spending his Fridays coming out and volunteering at some of their playground builds and just slowly working that into the framework of our homes,” Ayesha Curry said. “We’ve always done it, but now the kids are at the age, we’re like, ‘Okay, it’s time for you to be about it and see what’s happening within your community.’ And so it’s very important to us, but more often than not, we’re doing a pretty good job because we could be sitting doing something and the kids will actually bring something up.

“So, we’ll be sitting at the table and [Canon will] be like, ‘No, you need to finish your food.’ And he is like, he’ll look at his plate and then he’ll look at us. Then he’ll look at his sisters and he’ll be like, ‘Some kids don’t have anything to eat.’ But then it spirals and it goes into every single stat that you could think of. That’s just how he is, but at least he has the awareness.”

The Warriors will be playing their 34th game on Christmas. Stephen Curry has played in 10 Christmas games during his tenure with the Warriors. While the road games were a challenge, Ayesha Curry said she has come around on enjoying her husband having Christmas games.

The good news for the Currys is this one is against the Los Angeles Lakers in San Francisco at Chase Center at 5 p.m. PT, which offers time to open presents with the children in the morning.

“Listen, Christmas is going to be great regardless of what’s happening,” Ayesha Curry said. “It’s just the season for joy. I’m serious. It’s fine. I’ve come a long way in my thought process there. I used to be really hard on him and hard on myself during this time of year when it comes to that.

“‘If the game was going to be on the road, are we going to go? Are we going to stay home?’ Now it’s like, ‘Okay, what are we going to do?’ It’s relaxed. Everything is fine. Everybody’s healthy, happy, it’s fine.”