After a four-year hiatus, Warren Buffett will once again host his annual charity lunch auction, and this time, he’s got some high-profile names to help him cohost.
Stephen Curry, four-time NBA champion of the Golden State Warriors, and his wife, Ayesha Curry, a bestselling author and lifestyle entrepreneur, are partnering with Buffett for the exclusive lunch this year.
Buffett is reviving the auction, which has raised more than $53 million since it began in 2000, offering bidders the chance to win a lunch with the famed billionaire investor, this year dubbed “A Seat at the Table.” Buffett stepped away from the auction in 2022 after raising $19 million that year alone. The proceeds will be equally split with Buffett’s longtime partner Glide, a San Francisco–based social justice nonprofit that aids homeless individuals, and the Currys’ Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation.
Buffett reached out to the Currys over the holidays after their foundation caught his attention, Eat. Learn. Play. CEO Chris Helfrich told Fortune.
In just seven years, the foundation has distributed more than 25 million meals to kids and families in Oakland, the Currys’ adopted hometown.
“It’s safe to say that if this becomes an annual thing, that would be a dream for us,” Helfrich said.
The charity lunch has become one of Buffett’s signature philanthropic events, but it all started with his first wife, Susan Thompson Buffett.
Susan volunteered at Glide, which is home to a host of social justice and community services, including daily free food assistance, helping people transition out of homelessness, and addiction recovery programs.
“None of us knew who she was. We knew her name was Susie. She would come in, and she served meals in the kitchen,” Glide president and CEO Gina Fromer told Fortune. Volunteering turned into a yearslong partnership before Susan passed in 2004, and Buffett continued the auction for years afterward.
“I just think he came back, because he never left,” Fromer said. “He always watched and saw that the community of San Francisco, the revitalization coming back from COVID—how important Glide’s role has been in that.”
