It has been 21 years since Ben Curtis made history when he entered the British Open in Sandwich, England ranked 396th and walked out with the Claret Jug trophy.
In 2003 Curtis, an Ohio native, became the first golfer since 1913 to win a major title on his first attempt.
Curtis is now 47 years old and resides in Kent with his wife, Candace, and their two children.
Since his win 21 years ago, Curtis and his family have been feeding Northeast Ohio children through the Ben Curtis Family Foundation.
It started in 2012 when Ben and Candace watched a documentary about a family struggling with food insecurity.
“It just kind of opened my eyes. Like, this [was] really in our own backyard,” Ben said.
For Candace, it got her attention.
“They were choosing between paying bills or putting food on the table,” she said.
One year later, the foundation was born.
It established the Birdie Bag Program that provides school kids with nonperishable food items and toiletries. It initially partnered with just one school, Holden Elementary in Kent, but since its founding has grown to 12 school districts across Portage, Summit and Stark counties.
Last year, over 120 volunteers helped.
“We have such a great community [with] great volunteers. We couldn’t do it without them,” Candace said. “I hope we keep growing -- just because there’s so much need out there.”
At the foundation headquarters in Kent, Candace and the team assemble the Birdie Bags in what used to be a small church but is now transformed into a warehouse filled with dozens of recycling bins and cardboard boxes.
Those bags are then distributed to partner schools across Portage, Stark and Summit counties and shipped by moving trucks from different companies that donate their services.
“Everyone needs help at times in their [lives]. And we’re just happy to be able to provide that,” she said. “We just want to be a resource for families that need a little bit of help.”
The foundation volunteers packed over 56,000 Birdie Bags in the last school year, equaling more than 160,000 pounds of food.
“We haven't really grown geographically, but we've dug a little deeper kind of within the districts we're serving to make sure their needs are being met,” Candace explained.
Despite the exponential growth the foundation has witnessed over the past decade, the organization found another way to help its community.
Meals for the next generation of athletes
This year, the foundation launched a new initiative to provide student-athletes at Kent’s Theodore Roosevelt High School with meals as they train over the summer.
This pilot program provides nonperishable, ready-to-eat items at the school’s pantry. From there, athletes can pick up food as needed.
The Curtis Foundation uses excess items from the Akron-Canton Food Bank to help supplement athlete’s diets.
“We were able to get a lot of cereal, granola bars, popcorn, [and] larger items,” Candace said. “We thought [we could] get them into [student-athletes'] hands during the summer or even if they [could] just eat them while they're at practice.”
The new initiative provides a support system for the school's football team as they prepare for their season, said Head Coach Kardell Jackson.
“It's great to know we have those resources,” Jackson said. “It means a lot to know that our guys have support beyond just [the] locker room.”
Almost everyone on the team uses the pantry — which can be up to 60 players per day, Jackson said. He hopes his athletes can use that service to understand the importance of a healthy diet.
“We talk about practicing hard every day. [But] it’s really hard to do that when you don’t have that proper nutrition,” Jackson said. “[The players] don’t have to leave here knowing [they] won’t eat again until tomorrow. They always have [this] resource and they know that.”
Life after professional golf
For Ben, life has slowed down since his retirement from professional golf in 2018. He established a golf academy at the Country Club of Hudson and partnered with a winery in California to create his own blend, and it has given him the chance to further connect with his family.
He is the head coach for his son’s golf team at Kent Roosevelt High and will begin his third season in that role come August.
Although Ben said he couldn’t be happier settling down and raising his kids in Northeast Ohio, he still gets a kick out of watching the British Open, which begins July 18.
“I love watching it,” Ben exclaimed. “For so many years [of] playing in it, [I] really didn't get to watch it too much, because [I was] playing and focusing on getting ready for the tournament.”
Now Ben said he is doing what he can to create a legacy in his own community.
“It's not like you have to do a lot make a big difference,” he said. “We don't have to go crazy and need millions of dollars to make an impact. That's where [it] really hit home for me.”
