Ayesha and Stephen Curry have expanded the mission of their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation as they ramp up their COVID-19 safety net efforts this summer in the Bay Area.
They want to fight food insecurity while supporting an increasing number of restaurants and now, with a new initiative, local farmers too.
Their foundation, which was founded by the restaurateur/entrepreneur and the NBA star last July with the goal of fulfilling children’s core needs of food, education and fitness, is now focusing its attention on combating hunger during this pandemic.
Their Restaurants for the People project, in partnership with Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, has already resulted in 119 Oakland restaurants bringing back employees to make meals for underserved residents. The Currys have set a new goal of involving 200 restaurants by the end of July. They hope to serve a total of 2 million meals by then.
This week the foundation announced a new partnership with tech giant Salesforce and Full Harvest, a B2B produce marketplace, that is purchasing organic vegetables and fruit from small and minority farmers and delivering it to Oakland Unified School District families dealing with food insecurity.
“We start with sourcing from farmers who have been historically disconnected by traditional supply chains, and deliver the food in a manner that meets families where they are,” Jose Corona, the vice president for programs and partnerships for the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, said in a statement.
Kyla Johnson-Trammell, superintendent of the Oakland schools, noted that more than 70% of the district’s students qualify for free and reduced price lunches “during the best of times” — and the coronavirus crisis has only made that worse, she said.
So far, in two weeks, this program has delivered upwards of 100,000 pounds of food to 7,000 families. The goal is to reach 600,000 pounds — then start expanding the program to other school districts.
Details: www.eatlearnplay.org
