Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry put $25 million behind a mission that could change 10,000 Oakland children's lives

Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry have committed $25 million over five years to give about 10,000 Oakland elementary students one-on-one reading tutoring. Their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation announced the plan on Aug. 29, 2024, and it is the largest literacy investment the foundation has made. The program targets Oakland Unified School District students who read two or more grade levels behind. The need is wide. Nearly half of the district’s elementary students are performing below grade level. Workday, a longtime partner, has also given more than $11 million to the foundation.How will the Currys’ $25 million help 10,000 Oakland kids learn to read?Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry launched Eat. Learn. Play. in 2019 to focus on nutrition, education and physical activity. This commitment falls under education. Students will get high-dosage tutoring built to strengthen their reading and writing, the kind of help many families cannot afford on their own.The foundation has early proof to point to. A spring pilot ran at 18 Oakland elementary schools and reached nearly 600 students. Preliminary results from one tracking group show 85% of students closed their foundational skills gaps.Oakland Unified is adding $25 million of its own for small-group tutoring. The district aims to serve up to 4,500 students a year by 2029.What else has Eat. Learn. Play. done for Oakland students?Curry has put his name behind the foundation since 2019, and the totals are big. Over seven years, it has invested more than $100 million in Oakland kids, delivered 35 million meals, remodeled 25 schoolyards and six gymnasiums, and redesigned 14 cafeterias. More than 1 million new books have reached OUSD students.For the four-time champion, learning has a clear target: every Oakland elementary student reading proficiently by the end of third grade. The foundation says its high-impact tutoring now reaches more than 10,000 OUSD students.July brought two honors. The Hollywood Reporter named the Currys Philanthropists of the Year, and Curry received the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award.Books go home with kids, too. Last December’s book fairs ran at 47 OUSD schools, where more than 17,000 students could each choose four new books to take home. The plan called for more than 68,000 books in all.Fundraising comes from several directions. An April sneaker auction of more than 70 pairs worn by Curry raised $1.7 million, and the Workday Charity Classic added $5.6 million, helped by a matching gift from Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.