Transcript for:
Ellen McGirt Interviews Stephen and Ayesha Curry

please welcome senior editor fortune Ellen McGirt hey everybody having a good dream for us I have a feeling it's about to get a whole lot better so I'm here to introduce two people who really need no introduction but I'm gonna give it a try I like to think of them as a new American dream story a love story two kids who met 14 15 and youth group became college sweethearts guided by faith and family and community and a tremendous sense of adventure one grows up to be one of the most decorated professional basketball players in the modern era three-time NBA champion a two-time MVP to be exact the other who has translated her love of home and hearth and food and cooking and writing into a growing restaurant and lifestyle empire all of this while raising the cutest family anyone's ever seen but this is also a love story about their adopted city a beautiful historic creative unapologetic and necessary City complicated enough to produce both boots Riley and barbecue Becky I know you know who she is a city that's over policed in the streets but underfunded in the schools and where one in four kids are hungry it's a city that could use some love and good ideas so I find it particularly poignant that as the Golden State Warriors were moving across the bay to San Francisco stephane Ayesha curry decided to do something bold for their adopted hometown of Oakland here to tell us the story about their new nonprofit eat learn and play is Aisha and Stefan curry please welcome them thank you for that very kind introduction well you really don't need an introduction but I think Auckland does to the world and what you're doing is so extraordinary eat learn play is still pretty new you launched in July could you tell us a little bit about what it is yeah we're very excited about it I think in terms of what I you know have done and what we've been on our heart since you know we've had the opportunity to you know being out here in Auckland since 2009 we've done a lot of things in the community and try to you know aspire to bring our passions in a way that can give back and really impact people impact our community and it was kind of sporadic you know doing an initiative here you know she's done a lot of work with no Kid Hungry in the past but in terms of like all of our different things that were kind of disjointed and we wanted to fill or bring a way to bring all of our passions together our expertise and build a team around you know those initiatives and to do it in Oakland and so eat learn play was born out of that it's been a very exciting journey we did launch in July but it's been something that we've been truly working on for about two years now and so to be able to again impact the communities is something for us that's important it's been ingrained in us since we were kids growing up and we have an opportunity to do it at a very very large scale and you know eat learn play is that so I know you want to talk about you learn play absolutely so I'll talk a little bit about our core pillars which are very obvious eat learn play we thank you you know our goal really is to provide healthy nutritious meals for every child regardless of where they come from of course starting in Oakland and the ultimate goal is to end childhood hunger like you said earlier one in four children right here in our back yards are going to school hungry and I feel like it's unacceptable it shouldn't be the case and so we're it's our mission while we're here on this earth to try and end that learn we want to provide quality education and make sure that all kids have access to quality education through you know pre through high school and then to college but through college as well because a lot of people you know they have they they have the ability to get somebody to college but then what happens when they're there and they don't have an example of somebody that's been there and so it's our goal to make sure that they're seen through college and nurtured through college until they get into the workforce and then creating safe spaces for children to play something so simple that sounds like a park but there are so many children and cities and spaces and food deserts and places that just don't have safe spaces to play so we want to change that narrative and allow children healthy active lifestyles which in turn we've all seen the research it lessens anxiety levels it helps children thrive in school so it's just a whole full circle thing and these three key things are three things that we truly believe help nurture and build up the the best possible child so that they can thrive in adulthood and we're not reinventing the wheel it's really been our goal to kind of collaborate because one is great but together we're better and so it's taking all of these people and all these organizations that are doing amazing things and combining forces and using our platform to be able to connect and bring everybody together so that we can amplify everyone's work so I do have to acknowledge that you did not name this nonprofit after yourselves a lot of people do can you tell us a little bit about the decision behind that yeah I think in general I mean it's bigger than us we obviously understand the platform that we have and the voice that we have in this world and we've been blessed with that and tried to do everything we can to leverage that in every situation but when we're talking about basically what I used to just kind of described and taking care of the entire child and those three you know pillars this is work that we're doing now to hopefully set up you know a very very long term run at really changing lives and it's again it's bigger than the anything that Stefan and Aisha ourselves can do and so that was important to kind of make that a message at the beginning with you know how we named it and that's something that hopefully people can gravitate towards in terms of you know your own childhood experience you know communities that you come from and issues that you know need to be addressed and how eat learn plate can be something that you can gravitate towards and and hopefully get behind and help and and provide resources time whatever the case is and and that will continue to hopefully have a snowball effect way beyond you know my playing days or or anything that you know that's that short-term I actually you're gonna be cooking for a long time I'm pretty sure that's a nice career no offence as long as my hands are still here I'm the type of person that likes to just address the elephants in the room before I answer it's not but I think I think for us like another reason why we didn't name the nonprofit after our namesake is our family is huge on impact over legacy and so while it'd be nice to pass away and say oh look look at there found the Stefan and Aisha like who cares about that that's not what it's about for us it's about how did we impact the community what does it look like now where are we going and we felt like eat learn play was a very direct way of letting people know what we do so that at the end of the day it's about how can we impact the community not what did we leave behind for our namesake nobody cares about that so before we dig into the nuts and bolts of how this works and how busy you've been can you just take us back just for a few minutes to when you first came to Oakland and how you fell in love with the city and how you've gotten to know it and just where your footprint is footprints are like I said back in 2009 when I got drafted now by the Warriors and you know coming from across the coming across the country I grew up in Charlotte North Carolina and we got some Charlotte people respect respect and so it was a whole new world for me ayesha being from Toronto that's what I'm talking about feel kind of jealous there's only one Charlotte singing in a book but you know we got drafted out here I mean I was 21 years old didn't really know much about the bay area didn't know much about Oakland and you know fast-forward 10 years later we've grown up here as adults and I've been able to raise a family here really get to know the people in the community not just through the relationship with basketball but just in your everyday life and and the spirit of Oakland yes yes history of Oakland the cultural influence of Oakland it is so present you just walk down the street I know it's changed a lot but in terms of just what that city stands for and just the hope that that is is present every single day is something that is just contagious and you know the reputation that Oakland had from we were just growing up for what I knew about it it's just it's just so different when you get into the to the streets and meet people that are that are doing amazing things and that's been our experience with eat learn play just like I used to said we're not trying to reinvent the wheel there are so many people doing amazing work on the ground that their stories need to be told and they need to be amplified to be able to do the work even better and even more efficiently and an impact you know many more people and so those those stories have really you know just impacted us as a family this is our adoptive home now and so obviously that's been changed again with with the warriors and us moving to San Francisco but Oakland has been where we've grown up and all of our experience has been just so just so special and so we wanted to maintain a presence there as best we could so this would be a good time to tell some of those stories I know you've had a pretty busy day today and eat more and play business maybe you could tell us a little bit about that absolutely we got to take a trip this morning to the Martin Luther King elementary school and did a visit with no Kid Hungry - check out the breakfast program that they've implemented there and got to speak with some of the kids we had a little assembly and first partner Jennifer Newsome came along with us and we were able to just you know see how these kids are thriving and what a difference something as simple as a breakfast can make especially when it comes to education yeah we left there and then took a trip to the Oakland Unified School District central kitchen and so this this is actually amazing what they're doing I don't know how many thousands of square feet it is but it's a huge building that they built out with storage commercial kitchen and an education lab and a full garden for to be able to provide 30,000 meals for free for all of the students in Oakland to be able to have a hot lunch so I think that that's really spectacular they also have again their education labs so students will be able to come in whether it's on a field trip or a day trip from class and learn about their food learn about how to grow their food taking it from the land to the kitchen and creating a meal which i think is so important because especially when you go into into places that that there are so many food deserts you know I feel like the art of knowing where your food comes from how to grow it that's a loss it's it's a lost art if you will because they just don't know and it's not accessible and so for the fact that oh you SD central kitchen is making this so accessible for these kids I think it's really gonna create great change so how how this works yep what did you do he went to and so that was actually a really cool experience we went to college tracks location right third and Broadway in Oakland and we were there with how many kids was probably forty to fifty first generation high school students that today was the biggest day in their educational journeys they were submitting their first rounds of applications to if you ever want to get inspired by the next generation like these type of situations where you get to ask kids just what makes what makes them tick what they're passionate about how they want to change the world I don't remember talking like this when I was 16 17 18 years old we sat around in a circle and everybody shared you know some of the the excitement or the what they're excited about the you know the next journey in college what they're nervous about or anxious about and it was a very open you know kind of setting to get their feelings out and at the end they all went over to the computers and hit you know submit at the same time really you know took that next step in terms of hopefully understanding where their future is gonna be and then they had a celebration and that was where we were we were there just to celebrate them in their journeys they had to hit a button and everybody announced themselves and and said what their accomplishment was and everybody going crazy so when you talk about inspiring the young kids to pursue their education it was inspiring to us to be a part of that process to know that the work that's being done not just what I learned plays doing and not just in Oakland but around the country the next generation is there their force to be reckoned with and it's yeah it's pretty amazing to see so how it works now is it's a it's a grant making and support organization where you've partnered with some incredible local organizations there's also brands involved too let's talk about both let's talk about the organization's first how do you choose them have you gotten to know them beyond their specialty and your three pillars what are you looking for when you look for an organization that you want to partner with yeah sure I feel like this sounds silly but our team tends to move off of a vibe truly so it always takes a couple of visits to immerse ourselves into organic or organization organizational culture and just to see how they're moving about what kind of change they're making for us to decide whether or not we want to be in a partnership see how it's impacted the children that they're helping and then from there we we make our decision we love local right now so we've right now partnered with a lot of local organizations and then for us just when it comes to brand partnerships which i think is what you're asking also to the when we look to work with a brand we do have one of the biggest components of our decision-making process is how can this create change outside of ourselves and so we usually say no when it when they're they're not willing to participate in our eat learn play endeavours did the CEOs have to go in the dunk tank like it on launch day was a new noble launch day for eat learn play and that was really fun I think I loved it like I used to said it was just overall leadership - it's yeah a lot of parallels to the tech world and kind of just from a profit standpoint the leadership and how people are represented and just a vision that you know those people in charge have you know it goes a long way and it's a huge indicator of success and like she said it's a lot bit of about vibe but it's more or it's also about you know just being able to spend time with them and see if our ideals are aligned and and you ask those questions around are you really going to be you know eager to participate whether it's a you know sending volunteers or you know if it's if it's actually getting funds going towards the initiatives that were that we're you know passionate about and those type of things or those are the question that you ask going into write to that process and and for us I think the reason that eat learn play is is happening now because it ready to you know have the ability to dedicate time to this because it is something that is you can't just you know write checks it has to be something that you're really invested in that you have that follow up that you have leadership that we've been fortunate enough to have on our side as well and and really spend that time having those conversations really strategizing and goal-setting and and then following through and you know that's that's been a really rewarding experience through all this even in you know a short six to eight months of actually activating and going out then executing what we what we want to do besides the fact that I think it would be a lot of fun to be in a planning meeting with the two of you I okay I'm I am I'm also sure that you know and have known for a long time that there are very serious and big reasons why kids are hungry why there's no place for them to play you know why there's why we're losing talented people by first grade second grade third grade they're not treated correctly in schools they're disproportionately punished all of these things I know that you know is because I know that you've got reams of research on it and that you behind the scenes are sharing this research so I'm curious how you want to address the bigger systemic issues that make this work possible how do you plan to work with lawmakers and policy makers and will there ever be a president curry one day and it's not just because we're desperate I made a lot of economist at the word the relationship building and understanding you know we have to listen we have to be able to learn and to be educated and that's only with the people that you get in the same room with and I think that's big part of just our presence here in the Bay Area and doors that have opened you know whether it's working with Mayor Libby Schaaf in Oakland or like you said first partner Jennifer Newsome like those those relationships are ones that you can truly make sustainable difference and policy change that is a core goal of what ealer play is about no I issue you can talk about it in a second just about when you talk about kids going to school hungry and you know losing kids at that early of an age but they only have it don't even have a chance to to to succeed because of fundamental deficiencies in their life like those things should not happen and I won't see a thunder you have a huge huge want to to change you know that in a mature yeah I mean I I was talking about this this morning with first partner Newsome and I said where we are one of the only thriving countries that have children going to school that don't have a proper lunch that's afforded to them and I think that just shouldn't be the case and so it makes me question are we really thriving are we our children are going to school hungry are we I just feel like it shouldn't be a question and so I was speaking with her like how can we what do I need to do to make this happen where do we need to go who do we need to speak to and so it's just trying to get in the right room with the right people to make it happen and I know it's gonna be a journey but I think with our with our organization that is my biggest goal is to try and at some form of a government level have a meal program be the standard for all kids at any school regardless of where they're going where they come from I think it just shouldn't even be a question so that's one of my biggest things that I'm one of the biggest missions I'm on right now how are you I know you're you're surrounded by experts now and you've got access to some really interesting people how else are you learning about what's happening and the reasons for it and how to rank those priorities because you know when I think about the work that you're trying to do it's almost it's everything there there parents are at risk they don't have jobs maternal health how are you how do you rank all of this that's the thing right that's such a hard question because how could you possibly package Jews yeah and that's something we're figuring out that's why we have you know a team of people in our corner helping us to figure it out because if you left it up to us we'd be trying to do everything because we're we're not they're like let's let's pick and choose type of people so I mean especially I have to get reeled back in sometimes I have way too many big ideas and I want to you know solve the world's issues but I realized that pinpointing and tackling one at a time is is very important and so we're in the process now of figuring out what steps to take first and where to go next yeah lava again on just you know the relationship since you that you have with people on the ground and hearing what the community needs from the community and a big part of that is you know we've had me personally know she's been a huge sounding board in helping and getting us off the ground but there's a lady named Regina Jackson from the EO YDC the East Oakland youth development center it's kind of funny like how it goes through I want my first MVP in 2015 and as a part of the award you get to donate a car to a deserving group that you you kind of choose on your own and so that's where I first met her I got to donate the car to the Euro IDC to use at their disposal and we formed a relationship from there and she has been instrumental in terms of identifying those issues you know providing like real life examples of how these issues are affecting the kids and and then kind of pointing us in the right direction to how we can you know potentially you know intervene at the level that we're at and kind of you know strategize going forward and there's so many people that are you know you have to listen you can't come in figured thinking you have all the answers and I think that's that's been a huge part to our journey in the beginning it's just being open open minded and have open ears to what the community is saying and and then you know trying to strategize from there showing up with a car is a pretty nice way to start start I just want a sidebar for a quick second eyes open when I said that you were part of you were growing a rapidly changing Empire I mean it's really going fast could you just spend a couple give us a couple of minutes just letting us know where you are and I mean your New York Times bestselling author your restaurateur you've recently not that long well a little while ago you sort of we believe I empty or your lifestyle website just tell us where you are yeah oh boy please okay you're throwing me for a loop well we're about to open our fifth restaurant location well Terry Z and that's been a joy but even through that like working with organizations like the bread project which is an organization where they bring either formerly formerly incarcerated people or people that just need you know help getting on their feet they teach them how to bake they give him a place to stay and they nurture them until they can get back in the work field so even things like like the restaurant partners with them to make our buns for our burgers and so we're always looking for ways to kind of make an impact in that way so fifth restaurant is opening in January I'm opening my first permanent so I've had to pop up in Jack London Square in Oakland for my store for going on a year now which is crazy because it was supposed to be two months and and now we found a permanent location down the street in Oakland on 23rd Street so I'm really excited for that I'm actually in the middle of a rebrand right now okay I can't talk too much about it all right but it's been it's it's exciting yeah there's a lot going you know I just want to just talking with you both it's just so clear to me that this is caring about community and and it's just baked into everything you do in every decision you make and that seems to be a great filter for thinking about how to choose a partner that they they think that way to that everything is an opportunity to not center yourself but to Center the issues and the people who need you and we've been really blessed that the people that we have partnered with so far have gone above and beyond the standard when it comes to getting involved with elearn play so I do want to this is I know that you both have sophisticated portfolios and giving and and but I wanted to talk a little bit about your work with malaria and your and your your travels overseas with you tell us a little bit about that program because it really is extraordinary and of course the the CBI chief right here in the audio area you think interesting how you be people so yes I was in college my college roommate who's now a business partner we he started a yeah and my best friend he started a he's probably watching this like come on man and so he he started a three-on-three tournament called nothing but nets to raise money for malaria bed nets to be sent over to continent Africa and so part of that process I'm sorry it was called buzzkill that was raising money on behalf of nothing but nets to send back to Africa and so part of that I got to introduce her to the cause and became a champion of nothing but nets and the CEO of our foundation now Chris helfrich who's here he was running nothing but that's at the time and doing a lot of amazing work with nothing but nets and the UN foundation and that's where we met and so you think about just a common idea of how can we impact not just here in the in the States but you know overseas as well and we identified that specific cause I got to go to the North West Tanzania to a a refugee camp where there were about 40,000 Congolese refugees there and we spent you know three days I believe on the ground passing out bed nets just talking to the people there and hearing their stories and one it was just about just as a parent not being able to protect your child there's an alarming stats on you know children under the age of five being affected by malaria and so we had just had Riley at the time and so it kind of just cemented you know from a parental perspective how how much those bed nets you know mattered to them in terms of protecting their families and it was a really a rewarding experience and we did a lot of great work there and so that's just springboarded this this entire relationship that we've had and the idea of how he learned place is it's kind of come to life and you again you just find like-minded people that want to impact the community and are passionate about it you know I can speak for our team that this isn't a job this is a this is what they've been called to do and you can you can see that through every every single conversation we have and just how diligent they are and so yeah it was really really cool experience being a part of that cause and you know nothing that's are still on their own the race to end malaria and continent continent North Africa so a lot of great work there again that's just not happening here domestically but internationally as well the first time you've seen that kind of poverty or that kind of post-conflict situation Oh 100% it's kind of hard it's that's changing it's something that is hard to really put in the words to do that experience justice but it's only just double down that it you know emotion in terms of like any way that you can impact just one just one child one parent one family you're doing you're doing amazing work they didn't and it's kind of funny I did see a bunch of those eventually now there's a 2019 Golden State Warriors NBA champion shirt there [Laughter] a wardrobe of it as they didn't know I was but I did get to play on a clay they've met lady basketball court official regulation-size with some makeshift baskets they started to figure it out when I got that was just cool just basketball and then sports in general kind of the play aspect of eat learn play sports connects so many people on a level that is unheard of in this world and and so using that as an obviously an engine to to create change and and and create exposure and awareness on the issues that matter and bring people together no better example than me playing basketball and Tanzania with some refugees and and having fun and they gave me a little trophy to bring back home and all that so it's pretty pretty pretty rewarding experience the power play in a refugee camp so you get the two of you have an incredibly powerful network of network of powerful people and I just I have this many of whom are public figures many of whom are athletes many from are businesspeople and who are increasingly moving into work social justice work raising issues do you K know I've been sick for like the past couple days thank you good I'm fine thank you so much for coming and showing up I know see if we get you some ginger tea oh yeah so in my mind I have this maybe it's just a group text but I just I imagine a network of beloved powerful people like exchanging right best practices on micronutrients and and having like all of these things that we need to solve these systemic problems how do you tap into your network and and how are they supporting you and how are you supporting them that's something that's been I think hard for the both of us we really don't like calling in favors we were doing yourselves kind of people for the most part and so you know it took realizing that eat learn play and our other daily work endeavors are two separate things and so you kind of have to tuck your tail in between your legs and ask for the favor when it comes to the organization because that's what's really important and people should want a rally around it and so I mean a simple text a simple call goes a long way right getting hold of people's publicists can't believe that's a thing but it is and you just ask you you you can't be you can't you can't have any shame when it comes to this stuff right right we're trying to make a difference that's right and so I think it was for us realizing the difference between asking a favor and asking someone to help impact the community is what's really helped us so yeah I don't know you have anything to add I think just in terms of it seems more and more that the people that we come in contact with whether it's my teammates are people from other industries or whatnot there's a overwhelmingly apparent kind of initiative to use your platform in a way that I don't know in generations of FASTA that's been there and so like those conversations kind of come somewhat naturally in terms of like what people are doing and like what's going on and you know with elearn play or celebrating what other people are doing and finding ways to like she said rally around those causes and those efforts there isn't a group Chet started there's no like just play there's no like but it's just a matter of just having that shared perspective that we're all doing things in our own authentic ways right but there are connectivities along the way that you should definitely be able to support and I mean even just being here in the Bay Area it might not be I'll use that word famous but just know to write people with notoriety and the ability to help are very willing to do so if they feel a connection to to what you're doing it's been apparent just here with even our launch event that we had and a golf tournament we had here on the Bay Area I'm just trying to create those relationships even more people came out and you know the who's who of Silicon Valley the the the CEOs that are just extremely excited about you know their philanthropic endeavors as well and just whatever resources they have available just being so generous like I'm we're blessed to be here in the Bay Area to have those relationships went on and hopefully that'll continue to create a fire and again it's just about finding people that are doing it in their own authentic ways and I think we all have a saying that you're both excellent at technology I mean your Instagram and you just that was struggle sick maybe what the lame par there but I know so but but you understand how it works for the mo I did witness an unfortunate event Utley failing to post but you must admit you do have the resources of the Bay Area at your disposal and people do you love you and care about these kinds of things how do you envision using technology to to get some the stats I mean even just getting the stats out the fact that you even see the numbers yeah this isn't like my actual beat at fortune and I'm you know I'm out there for three and a half years it's like kids are dying they're being there awareness you know prison school to Prison Pipeline these are real things that's where you're the next black CEO is in the prison somewhere right yep so how do you plan to use this these your mmm that's that's one of the mean you hope you love it and you hate it and one that's one of the reasons why I love it is because with the click of a button you can raise awareness to millions and millions of people and so I think it is really just getting the statistics out there and getting the numbers out there and letting people know how they can help something as simple as that just to put it into perspective Oh in Oakland you know the child corny school Hemery numbers one in four yeah across the states it's it's one in six and so what what are we doing like you know it's literally in our backyards and so just like letting people people don't know that because if you don't know you don't know and so it's just figuring out how to you know make sure we're using our platform and that gift of technology to the best of our abilities and I think honestly just putting it out there whenever you can weaving it into whatever we do goes a long way I also think you know on both our behalves for trying to find ways to just use every channel whether it's just our own social media pages or you know the organizations that we work with try to find ways to cross pollinate across all the different endeavors that we had like she said so in terms of like brand partners that you select to go into partnership with making sure they have a like mindset and that the things in the campaign's that you're doing have some give back you know perspective and make it a priority and make that sure that's weaved in and it has a synergy through everything that we're doing in our we're both kind of dabbling now in the media space and have our own production companies also trying to find ways that if you find a project that you know has a stat or some ability to make people aware of an asset of a situation that they might not have come in contact with get behind those and be champions of them and share those with the world and let people know tell their stories those type of opportunities you want to be selective about them because you want to make sure that they're powerful and that they're moving the needle and it's something that we really believe in but those opportunities have just you have to have a perspective on using every opportunity every distribution channel every brand partner every company that I've reinvest in all those different angles there's so much opportunity there and it's important to have that perspective going in so sort of an organic approach do you have any idea are you reviewing scripts do have any sort of related projects and the works that you could talk about even in a general way I'm curious yeah there's so we've had some so we have had some wins so she has her endeavor that she's done a cooking show on Food Network ABC sorry the family food fight that we had like there's so much opportunity in terms of like now and if it's on you know with a partnership with ABC like we had or if we had the ability to we had break I had a movie brother breakthrough come out and theaters this past summer a documentary called a manual about the shooting that happened in Charleston South Carolina back in 2015 those opportunities can continue to set the stage for how we can story tell through media and through you know entertainment and impact families and you know you know of all generations whether you're laughing at it you're crying with it with it or you know you're being presented with information and you're processing it there's so much opportunity there as well and so again it's all about being authentic and that's the that's the hardest part about there's so much opportunity there but it's is it really resonate with us and who we are and what we're trying to do yeah I think storytelling goes a long way to especially I mean just speaking back to Oakland with what Oakland's going through this transformation in a sense but it's like how do you keep the heart and soul there and so I'm in like the very very very early stages of working on a documentary about a block of women in Oakland five black female owned businesses and just telling their story and how they're kind of keeping that heart and soul in Oakland and okay I'm one of I went on one of the businesses but that's okay but the other the other okay to begin the story but the other four women are are incredible and they're what really drew me to wanting to be in that space yeah and just seeing the potential and just knowing together us as businesses what we can do for the community and so I'm really excited to talk too much about it cuz again it's like it's in it it's an embryo right now it's in it so but look out for that I'm really excited about it but I feel like something simple like that with what with everything and all the change that Oakland schools that can draw eyes to it once once you know it comes out and create some sort of an impact and and change and hopefully you know get people excited about Oakland and bringing their businesses to Oakland I feel like I've never I've never experienced being in a place before where there's so much heartbreak and heart ache and need but people are still so passionate and loving and caring and like proud of their city and who like who doesn't want to be a part of a place like that that's a voguing so much change but still has so much heart to it and so that's what that's why you know we decided to start there because it Oakland really has nurtured us it's it really is a special person arrium rambling it really is a special place to us at we only have a few minutes left so now is the time in front of the greatest conference audience in the world is a beautiful you are a beautiful audience I do I love I love coming here and I wish you could see what you look like from up here because you really do look like hope in the future and already saying that right yeah so but now the time to put out the big vision and where how you think this can scale and how your community approach can be meaningful in other communities that are specific in their ways and what we can do to be part of it I mean it's been an amazing journey so far that we've talked about and kind of the process now that we're on and we've identified our initial run of grantees then we're really excited about you know getting telling their stories and broadcasting the work that they're doing on the ground we talked about ashes you know mission on you know getting sustainable policy change around food programs and schools and and work in Oakland is a priority it's again is our adoptive home it's where we wanted to start but every community has its own set of needs and issues and problems and things that we can all be a part of that journey for us it's about continuing again to be to listen to what you know is going on at the ground level and and that's that's how that's a process and a long journey and so we've we want to be very impactful and efficient and how we go about our business and I think this what we've kind of started on right now and so in terms of just following our journey in our path we're going to be broadcasting everything every single step of the way if you can find ways that in any of those three pillars you have people that are on the ground doing amazing work and you want to you know put that on the radar we've got a way to get that information and we can hopefully you know create those relationships and it's just all about continuing to build hope for the next generation because like Aisha said that's it's so profound and Oakland and I know that is a similar thread in a lot of different communities but that's something that you know we're all about right now yeah good job babe I I feel like you know especially in a room full of changemakers I feel like everybody's always talking about scaling I know and everybody is so quick to scale and we want to grow we want it big and we want it now and for me especially when it comes to this I think crawling before you walk is the best decision because people are quick to scale and then you scale and you have a beautiful ship that doesn't sail and I just I want to make sure that we do this the right way and that we you know make the change first in the place that we intended to start that out for and once we feel like we've gotten to a great point there then we think about scaling out but until then I really believe in the village approach and for us you know no matter where you go in the world everyone has their tribe they have their village the saying it takes a village to raise a child and so really right now in the here and now our goal is to truly just be the village for the people around us that don't have that village we I mean we're here today because we have our little village at home but there are several people that can't even go to work and and take their children to school because they don't have anybody around them to do that and so it's really our goal to find those people to wrap our arms around them and to you know create change and that small what some people might seem think is small and insignificant is a big big big change so we're gonna we're gonna crawl for a little while and I think that that's always smart beautiful fundamentals we're gonna crawl right along with you thank you so much [Applause]