Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation
OVERVIEW: Eat. Learn. Play. is the philanthropic foundation of the basketball star Steph Curry and his wife, Ayesha. The organization supports food systems, education and recreation for Oakland’s underserved children and youth.
IP TAKE: Still in its earliest years, Eat. Learn. Play. does not yet accept applications for funding, but appears to be an approachable and collaborative organization that would likely be interested in partnering with Oakland-area organizations that work with underserved children. One way to gain the foundation’s attention may be to volunteer with one of Eat. Learn. Play’s several signature literacy or food programs.
The foundation has also demonstrated interest in advocacy for public policy supporting children’s nutrition programs at the local, state and national levels. Expect Oakland to remain a central to the Curry’s philanthropy, something they emphasized in their interview with IP.
PROFILE: The Eat. Learn. Play Foundation was founded in 2019 by the basketball star Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha Alexander Curry. A son of NBA player Dell Curry, Stephen Curry was born in Akron, Ohio in 1988 and attended Davidson College. In 2009, he was drafted by the Golden State Warriors and became quickly known as an NBA sharpshooter. He helped the Warriors win the NBA title again in 2017 and 2018. Born in Canada and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Ayesha Curry pursued an acting career out of high school. She later channeled her love for cooking into a blog and YouTube channel. Tapped to host her own program on the Food Network in 2016, she has also branched out by authoring a cookbook, opening multiple restaurants and launching a cookware line.
Based in Oakland, California, the foundation “is committed to unlocking the amazing potential of every child by fighting to end childhood hunger, ensuring students have access to a quality education, and providing safe places for all children to play and be active.” The foundation provides support to community organizations in Northern California through grantmaking and signature programs aligning with its eat, learn and play initiatives.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
Eat. Learn. Play. supports education via its learn initiative, which maintains the goal of “fostering a love of reading among all Oakland children” with a strong focus on Black and Latino/a children, less than half of whom read at grade level. The foundation has run signature programs in this area, including Little Town Libraries to support literacy in “under-sourced areas of Oakland” and the Eat. Learn. Play Bus, which distributed books and other learning materials to children throughout Oakland.
The foundation has so far also made a few grants for K-12 education, having supported San Francisco’s Foundation for Students Rising Above, College Track and the East Oakland Youth Development Center. Higher education funding has gone to San Francisco State University and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Curry made a 7-figure donation to Howard University to establish the first Division I men’s and women’s golf teams at the HBCU. While Curry did not attend the institution, he played golf on his high school team and has appeared as an amateur and celebrity golfer in tournaments. Curry was partly inspired by a Howard senior who turned down an offer to play collegiate golf in order to attend the school. Of the some 100 HBCUs, only 30 have golf programs.
Grants for Food Systems
The foundation’s eat initiative prioritizes children of color in the Oakland area who are disproportionately affected by food insecurity. The foundation has recently collaborated with the Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Central Kitchen to “deliver millions of fresh meals annually to Oakland students” during the school day. Eat. Learn. Play. also supports the Alameda County Community Food Bank, distributes food staples through its Eat. Learn. Play Bus initiative and partners with No Kid Hungry in its advocacy programs to support and expand programs like SNAP and the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.
Grants for Community Development
The Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation’s play initiative aims to bring “the joy of sports and physical activity to the next generation of Oakland youth” by “providing opportunities and creating safe spaces for all Oakland children to be physically active and participate in youth sports.” Still in its earliest stages of development, the initiative has so far renovated a playground at one of Oakland’s public elementary schools and collaborated with Oakland’s parks and recreation department to run sports-related summer camps for children and youth. The foundation’s future programs include additional renovations of public recreational spaces.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, the Eat. Learn. Play. foundation gave away just under $500,000. This sum does not include the foundation’s several signature programs. The foundation mainly supports organizations and initiatives working with underserved children in Oakland. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s individual program pages and its recent tax filings.
At this time, the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation is not accepting applications for funding. Grantseekers working in the foundation’s areas of interest may send a message via the foundation’s contact page and signing up for updates and volunteer opportunities.
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