00:00Hey! Hey everybody how you doing? My name is W Kamau Bell as you heard I'm here to
00:06spend some time with the 2026 Philanthropist of the Year Stefan and
00:10Ayesha Curry. Let them give them a round of applause. Are they always cute? Yes.
00:19A little bit of news Stefan and Ayesha's flight from New York was cancelled due
00:24to storms on the East Coast. Luckily though we have them through the magic of
00:27video they should be right here on the screen right now. Stefan and Ayesha are
00:31you here with us? In the same room and everything. Hi. So I just want to start on
00:35the website for Eat Learn Play there's a quote from the two of you. It reads when
00:40we launched Eat Learn Play in 2019 we saw the tremendous need that existed in our
00:45adopted hometown of Oakland and set out to use our platform and resources to work
00:50to unlock the full potential of the kids in our community. So first of all talk to
00:55these people about Oakland. I mean you were drafted there in 2009 Steph. Ayesha you
01:00could have just seen Oakland is like where he worked. Why did it become the
01:03adopted hometown? Yeah we were blessed in 2009 when I heard my name called and had no
01:10idea about the future obviously at that point but you know that was you know where
01:15we started our adult journey if you will as a couple starting our family playing in
01:22front of some of the greatest the greatest fans in the NBA there's so much pride being
01:28from Oakland representing the town and as we got you know familiar with the area
01:33started to meet people be in the community feel that love and support back it it felt
01:39like home pretty much immediately. Literally I know we'd spend seven just
01:44finished in 17 years in the Bay but from just it felt like home and for us to be able
01:52to set up our
01:53foundation there you know after what a decade and really understanding what our impact was going to be I think
02:02you know we we are super proud and beyond
02:05excited about the work that we're doing in our hometown. Thank you thank you and you mentioned this
02:11Stephan and Aisha if you want to weigh in so the Warriors moved across the Bay to San Francisco I
02:16live in Oakland we're not mad we're not mad we're not mad at all we're not bitter at all but
02:21anyway the Warriors moved way across the Bay to San Francisco
02:25Aisha why do you two still the need feel the need to stay connected to Oakland?
02:30Again we we just love Oakland I honestly we had our first child there
02:35uh I remember when we used to live in Jack London Square and just walking around and
02:42it was the first time that I saw what community really looks like and it was the first time that
02:51I
02:51experienced being around so many creative talented loud and proud individuals and it's something that
03:00ignited and sparked you know love of life in me as well you step foot in Oakland and and people
03:06love life
03:07there and so I think that that's that's our why we just I love the people there and I just
03:15love
03:15how even if somebody doesn't have a lot of something they do what they can with it and it's always
03:22the best
03:23that anybody has so I just we love Oakland so much um and it was always going to be where
03:30we were going
03:30to focus our efforts to because of that because of the realization that there are so many talented
03:37gifted smart wonderful people the problem is often there's just no access and so to be able to create
03:46access for the future generation of Oakland Unified School District students um it was a no-brainer for us
03:54thank you so can you tell us the origin story Aisha I want to say with you of Eat Learn
03:59Play
03:59there's so many places so many causes you could put your your resources into so many different things
04:05going on how did you decide to focus on children
04:09I think that came naturally having children of our own um but for me really the focus came I
04:17I was doing a lot of work at the time way back when with no kid hungry and I I
04:22was led to realize
04:25the staggering statistics that at the time one in five children going to school were going to school
04:32and coming home hungry every single day and so that really ignited a fire in me from an eat
04:38perspective um just realizing hey my kid could be going to school with somebody who who doesn't have
04:44anything to eat and we live in America like that that should not be the case this is supposed to
04:50be
04:50the land of the free and the land of abundance and and I that to me lit a fire under
04:56me to just keep
04:57going and figure out how I could help more and more and more and then you can speak to well
05:02yeah I
05:03mean the the three pillars of a healthy you know childhood that you know allows kids to reach their
05:09full potential like she mentioned um food security is a big part of it is the idea of you know
05:15that
05:15being the foundation the the learn and play um felt like were great supports of knowing early childhood
05:23literacy is the the unlock uh for you know especially by that third grade uh metric where it's a great
05:30marker for high school completion my mom is a lifelong educator I went to my story schools growing up and
05:36just understanding how important that is uh to have you know access to you know tutoring culturally appropriate
05:45books they are culturally relevant and age appropriate books and then obviously sports teaches us so much about
05:51life brings people together it creates community and promotes a healthy active lifestyle and um
05:56I think kids exploring themselves uh through play and through safe places to play and uh work was being
06:03done already so just being able to combine all of those forces together underneath learn play
06:08it sounds very straightforward in terms of the pillars but the the deep dive and the work that
06:13we're doing we're we feel like it's very complimentary and important for kids to uh to be able to reach
06:18their full potential
06:19thank you i'm going to read some of the work that you've done some of the things you've accomplished
06:23uh sit back this is going to take a while uh since the foundation launch you have raised and invested
06:29a hundred million dollars into the oakland community
06:38you have rebuilt 24 school playgrounds in oakland those transformed playgrounds mean that 10 000 students have
06:44new places to play you have helped more than 4 000 people volunteer for more than 30 30 000 hours
06:54of
06:54volunteer work you have provided 35 million nutritious meals to kids and families experiencing food insecurity
07:00partnering with the alameda county community food bank and local oakland restaurants uh you've worked
07:06to close the literacy gap you've committed more than 20 million to literacy programs and resources which
07:11includes providing high impact tutoring for 7 500 elementary students who are furthest behind uh yeah
07:17a round of applause for all that
07:23talk about what it means for you two to see and hear about all the good work you've done and
07:27the
07:27effect it has had on these communities in oakland what is it like to hear all that good work
07:31and know you're a part of it it's encouraging and slightly depressing at the same time just knowing how much
07:37work needs to be done and just you never i mean we need to tell the story about the work
07:42to make sure
07:43that the urgency of the need is expressed and so um the the committed you know investment that we've
07:49had into the school district the partners that we've been able to work with organizations that have
07:54been doing this work way long before eat learn play has been in existence but our ability to be able
07:59to
07:59support uh forces on the ground in the schools meeting kids where they are like that is truly rewarding
08:06work for us um it also is it's surreal because we were seven years in and these numbers are staggering
08:12but we're so excited about this follow-through with the cohort of kids that we're um we're able to reach
08:18right now that hopefully we can really attack some of the the numbers um to aisha's point about you know
08:25uh the one in five uh kids going to school hungry the uh the literacy gap within the oakland unified
08:31school district especially from a minority perspective and then just the the spirit of
08:37feeling like you know your school is reflective of energy and opportunity and inspiration um that
08:43all of that makes so much sense in terms of the work that we're doing the world we're proud um
08:48but
08:49you know it's it's it's it's uh there's a sense of urgency for sure yeah in 2023 you all pledged
08:55to
08:55raise uh 50 million dollars for the oakland unified school district in three years uh how's that going have
09:00you hit that goal and if not is there anything the people in this room can do to help
09:06we have but uh part of our the pillar of eat learn play we're still thinking at um you know
09:13bigger and
09:14broader in terms of creating this model that hopefully will solve a lot of things in oakland
09:18but be a model for the rest of the country of different communities that uh you know are attacking some
09:25of the same same issues but a big pillar of our foundation is every dollar that comes into our
09:30foundation a hundred percent of it goes back into the community we cover all the operating costs for
09:35the foundation so um we don't want to be
09:42leaving us and so you know we love to make sure that's known if you support you learn play that's
09:49great uh aisha i assume it hasn't been easy to maintain your careers uh you know steph's got that
09:55day job uh aisha you have a skin care company sweet july you all are working on a new beverage
10:02company called pleasant nutrition which is a public benefit company where your partner is someone named
10:07michelle obama uh and then there's eat learn eat learn play have there been challenges i think people
10:15think about getting into philanthropy have there been challenges was there a learning curve is i mean
10:20is it hard to do good at the beginning but continue to keep it up as you're going through it
10:24aisha you
10:25know what's interesting um because you asked if it if it makes us feel proud and someone says yes it
10:31makes us feel proud and it does but honestly most days i just feel angry i i i feel like
10:39angry as a mom
10:40i feel angry as a woman in this community i feel angry as a human being who used to be
10:47a child
10:49like understanding that children could have such lack of um here in 2026 and so i feel like for me
10:57oftentimes it's learning how to deal with the anger that comes with having to convince people of why they
11:05should join in and help i feel like this is something we talk about all all of the time it's
11:11it's so interesting that you kind of have to rally people when we're talking about children um and so
11:17for me i think that is my personal struggle is like balancing the emotion that comes with that and
11:24putting my head on straight and saying no no we're gonna we're gonna lace up those boots and we're gonna
11:29get to work like we'll worry about those emotions later that i think has been the hardest part for me
11:34and then the waiting period of understanding that especially what what we've been doing the past
11:40three years now is getting the data and um all of the information so that we're making the right
11:46strategic moves for what we're going to do next because i'm a big ideas girl and then i'm always
11:53coming up with something and i'm like we need to do it now and everybody's like wait we've got our
11:58wait let's strategize here and so i think uh within like the framework of our of our organization
12:04that's that's that's how i feel that's the headline from holly reporter aisha curry angry uh
12:14you you just you gave them that's gonna get aggregated uh
12:20sorry i didn't mean to make it that easy um
12:23uh what would you two what advice would you two give to other people in your position other
12:28professional athletes other philanthropists other power couples other pop culture icons
12:32what would you what advice would you give to people who have the kind of resources you have
12:36and want to help how do they build the framework you don't do it yourself uh partners are so important
12:44community partners are so important um at least that's how it's been for us and oftentimes you find
12:51that you can amplify your work 10x just by strategizing with the right room of people and so
12:58it it it took me a long time as well to understand that um and so i just feel like
13:06that's that's the way
13:07you get stuff done i'd add to that's a great shout out for our team and learn play in our
13:12organization
13:12we've been blessed with some amazing leadership that uh aisha's point takes big ideas brings a
13:18discipline to them to follow through uh have feedback lou's been awesome and then the trust
13:23that's been built over the you know the seven plus years that we've been doing this and as our team
13:28has grown maintaining that culture of how we how we do things eat learn play but i also say i
13:34should
13:34mention no get hungry i work with an organization called thanks usa back in the day on uh scholarships
13:39for active military personnel and their families just show up and get engaged i think you don't have to
13:47have this grand thesis of you know how you're going to change the world i think that can come over
13:53time as you as you get active that's how we formed be learn play like we we try to do
13:58as much as we
13:59could uh you know as often as we could and that gave us clarity on where we wanted to show
14:04up and that
14:04took a decade so our first my rookie year my first event we did was with monte ellis for all
14:10the die
14:11hard dub nation fans you know that is but uh him and his wife wanika invited us to one of
14:16their
14:17thanksgiving drives and we had we were newcomers in oklahoma been there for like three months and
14:22the tish one that gave us a vision of the community that we wanted to help just because we were
14:27able
14:27to show up and they invited us so just get active don't think you have to you know have this
14:32grand
14:33thesis or plan that this master plan of you know how you're going to change the world i think that
14:38can
14:38come over time thank you we only have time for one more question before i get to that question
14:42steph uh blink three times if lebron is coming to the warriors
14:50i had to try i had to try i had to try sorry sorry i'm a homer i'm a homer
14:59sorry sorry about that
15:00sorry aisha i apologize from distracting from the great work you're doing um sorry
15:09i wasted the last minute on that sorry this is where we're going to end what gives you to hope
15:15for what the work you're doing in the future going forward aisha what gives you hope
15:20what gives me hope is watching the way people outside of our team show up for us time and time
15:27again so we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing you know without our partners like anil goostery
15:35um without the alameda county community food bank without oakland unified school district being willing
15:42to to work with us and saying hey like there are holes here help us fill them i i feel
15:49like every
15:50single time we have an activation or an event or a park unveiling people continue to show up and we
15:57don't
15:57even have to ask at this point and it is just such a beautiful thing and it gives me hope
16:02that the
16:04sense of community is still alive and well in the world thank you thank you
16:12yeah i couldn't say it any better i just think the feedback that we've gotten from
16:17um administrators faculty parents kids themselves um the energy that we get to feel like our job is just
16:23to make them feel seen and heard and loved and i think great things will happen out of that excuse
16:29me what happened on that so just uh the hope isn't the great you know track record that we've been
16:37able
16:37to establish over seven years and just the idea that we're only going to continue to go deeper
16:42and with the clarity that we have on where we show up as a foundation so an organization i think
16:48you
16:48know i hope that there's uh ways to make sure people know about the events that we do throughout
16:55the year um you know volunteer opportunities it's just so contagious the energy that you get when
17:01you show up and um to ayesha's point that gives us all hope stephan and ayesha curry everybody give a
17:08round of applause
17:09to ayesha curry everybody give a round of applause thank you
17:10you
17:11you
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