'It's our home': Steph and Ayesha Curry's ongoing tribute to Oakland

Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s foundation, Eat. Learn. Play., funded a fully renovated recreational space Lockwood STEAM Academy in Oakland

Courtesy Eat. Learn. Play

When Stephen and Ayesha Curry stepped onto Lockwood STEAM Academy’s newly renovated schoolyard in early September, the students’ initial excitement over the reimagined space turned into pure, unhinged euphoria.

The Currys’ foundation, Eat. Learn. Play., funded the East Oakland elementary school’s renovation project, transforming a barren patch of concrete into a dynamic recreational area, complete with a student-designed playground, community garden, mini soccer pitches, and eye-catching mural.

“It was an out-of-body experience for the kids,” said Lockwood principal Nehseem Ratchford. “They really couldn’t believe they were here.”

Amid the delirium, Christopher Helfrich, Eat. Learn. Play.’s chief executive, noticed one girl was visibly distressed, tears welling in her eyes.

“She was worried that she was going to have to find a new place to go to school, because she thought surely this new amazing schoolyard wasn’t for her,” Helfrich said. “It had to be for other kids.”

The young student was assured that the space was indeed for her and her nearly 700 classmates.

“That story just hits you hard,” Helfrich said. “It’s why we do this work in the first place.”

As Stephen embarks on his 15th season leading the Golden State Warriors this week, the Currys’ on-court and business endeavors will undoubtedly steal the spotlight — but their community outreach has been vital for Oakland’s diverse and often underserved student body.

Oakland’s families speak more than 50 languages, and roughly 90% of Lockwood’s students identify as either Black, Hispanic, or both, according to Oakland Unified School District Communications Director John Sasaki.

At the same time, many of their students struggle to receive basic needs, such as food (72% of Oakland students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches) or shelter (student homelessness in Oakland public schools grew 70% over the last three years).

Oakland school facilities are also severely underfunded and often outdated. Sasaki said the district, which serves some 35,000 students, has $3 billion worth of facilities needs.

That’s where Eat. Learn. Play. comes in.

Since its inception in 2019, the Currys’ philanthropic arm has invested $47 million in the Oakland community. It has delivered more than 25 million meals, provided $6 million in literacy resources, and revitalized a dozen school recreation spaces such as the one at Lockwood STEAM.

Stephen Curry plays with students under their new parachute at Lockwood STEAM Academy on Sept. 6, 2023 in Oakland. The parachute is part of a swath of refurbishments and enhancements the school received from Eat. Learn. Play.

Courtesy of Eat. Learn. Play.

In September, the organization committed to raising $50 million over the next three years to support Oakland Unified School District, with 100% of the foundation’s administrative and fundraising costs coming directly from the Currys’ pockets.

Despite the Currys’ catalog of achievements, the establishment of Eat. Learn. Play. “reigns supreme,” Ayesha Curry told The Examiner.

“It’s the way we were raised,” Ayesha said. “We are continuing that cycle of being there for the next person beside us within our community.”

Why Eat. Learn. Play.?

In 2018, the Currys’ lawyer filed the organization’s original IRS paperwork under “The Steph and Ayesha Curry Family Foundation.” But Ayesha refused to move forward until the name was changed.

“That name makes this all about us and doesn’t communicate anything about the impact that we want to have,” Helfrich remembered Ayesha saying. “Stephen chimed in and said, ‘Yeah, this is about impact, not legacy.’” (“Impact over legacy” is now one of the mantras of the foundation.)

Instead, they decided to name the foundation after its three core pillars — nutrition, education and physical activity — a blend of Stephen and Ayesha Curry’s passions and what Helfrich described as the key ingredients to a healthy childhood.

Ayesha Curry, a cookbook author and Bay Area restaurateur, is focused on nutrition and food insecurity, seeking to provide high-quality meals to those with the least access to them. That’s why, at the start of the pandemic, she helped distribute more than 20 million meals cooked by local Oakland restaurants to the city’s most needy residents.

Beyond Steph’s physical prowess on the court, he also knows intimately the value of education thanks to his mother, Sonya, who’s a teacher and president of the Christian Montessori School of Lake Norman in Huntersville, N.C. an institute she founded in 1995. Curry, who left college early to pursue his basketball career, finished his degree and walked the stage at Davidson College last year, fulfilling a promise he made to his mother 13 years earlier.