Stephen and Ayesha Curry make new commitment to boosting Oakland schools, children and families

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Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, right, speaks next to his wife, Ayesha, during a charity event at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. The Currys and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, right, is interviewed next to his wife, Ayesha, at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. The Currys and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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FILE - Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, center, is cheered by kids after being dunked in a tank as part of the launching of the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation in Oakland Calif., July 18, 2019. Curry, his wife Ayesha Curry, and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

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Lockwood STEAM Academy principal Nehseem Ratchford, left, poses for photos in the school’s yard with fourth-grader Ermias Afeworki, middle, and Rose Chardak, the school’s Community School Manager, in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Janie McCauley)

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A playground and part of the schoolyard at Lockwood STEAM Academy is shown in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Janie McCauley)

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Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, middle, and his wife, Ayesha Curry, right, pose for photos with Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation CEO Chris Helfrich before a baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the Houston Astros in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, July 27, 2022. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry, left, shakes hands with team owner Joe Lacob during a charity event at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. Also pictured at right is Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and co-CEO of Workplay. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Former San Francisco Giants baseball player Buster Posey, left, stands next to golfer Brandt Snedeker during a charity event at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and co-CEO of Workplay, gestures while standing at Stanford Golf Course during a charity event in Stanford, Calif., Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

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Chris Helfrich, CEO of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, gestures while being interviewed at Stanford Golf Course during a charity event in Stanford, Calif., Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. The family of Stephen Curry and partners are expanding the reach of their Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation, established in 2019 to support youth in Oakland, the Bay Area and beyond, while striving to improve lives of families nationwide. They are generating $50 million in additional funding to assist the Oakland Unified School District. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

By JANIE McCAULEY

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Each day since school began early last month, outgoing 10-year-old Ermias Afeworki asks someone on staff at Lockwood STEAM Academy when the school’s sparkling new play yard will finally be ready.

He skipped across campus a week or so back declaring, “This is going to be the best playground ever!”

Ermias can thank Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and his chef wife, Ayesha, for that.

The Currys’ Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation and its supporting partners are committing another $50 million to expand their investment in the Oakland Unified School District. As part of that, Lockwood is receiving a new outdoor area that includes separate play structures for kindergartners and older students, a pair of new basketball courts and mini soccer pitches and a nature exploration area featuring logs and stumps for climbing and jumping.

“I love it, because I can play with my friends every day here,” said Ermias, whose regular inquiries go to various teachers and principal Nehseem Ratchford.

Ermias’ entire family could benefit. He lives across the street from school, is one of four children and has a younger brother at Lockwood, which had an enrollment of 658 as of late last week — about 65% Hispanic, more than 25% Black and a growing Arabic community as well. These are the children the Currys want to build up to chase big goals.

“I think it mostly stems from our parenthood,” Ayesha Curry said. “When you have a child and then you start to hear about the disparities around you that other families and parents are facing and you start to realize that it’s nobody’s fault, it just is what it is.”

The Currys hope to build on the impact they made during the initial four years of their foundation work, which began in 2019 and later identified families in need during the pandemic and delivered more than 25 million meals.

“It’s kind of spring-boarded a lot of momentum around the ways that we can keep it going,” Stephen Curry said.

Lockwood also soon will debut a covered outdoor classroom. It is one of six Oakland schools and community areas receiving remodeled play spaces this year. Another $1 million is going to help grow middle school sports and provide greater opportunities for girls especially.

Aside from new playgrounds and athletics, the expanded movement aims to serve more than 6 million meals to Oakland students annually while enhancing cafeterias, provide all children reading below grade level with regular access to tutoring, and distribute 300,000 books through efforts such as restocking school libraries and hosting elementary school book fairs.

Eat.Learn.Play. hopes to refurbish 25 more play areas by the completion of the 2026 school year.

“You can dream big, obviously that’s why we started. There’s an idea of leveraging the blessings of the platform that we both have and have been given,” Stephen Curry said. “And at that moment like, OK, Eat.Learn.Play. is again this specificity and clarity in how we want to amplify our impact and developing a strategy around that.”

Aneel Bhusri, cofounder and co-CEO of Workday and one of the Currys’ primary partners, calls the couple “one in a generation.”

“First of all, people like Steph and Ayesha, a lot of times they wait until they’re retired to have an impact, and they’re doing it at the prime of their lives, at the peak of their impact,” Bhusri said. “It’s just rare.”

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