Ben Curtis Family Foundation's 'Birdie Bags' are helping Northeast Ohio students thrive

You may know Ben Curtis as a star Kent State University athlete and a champion PGA golfer, but you may not know that for the past ten years, he and his wife Candace have been making a real difference in their Kent community.

When the couple, who met as students and golf team members at Kent State, learned that 20 percent of children in Portage, Stark and Summit counties face food insecurity, they knew, they had to take action. The Ben Curtis Family Foundation was established in 2013 and they quickly set out to donate what they called "Birdie Bags' - filled with food and toiletries, to local schools.

"There's a weekend worth of food in there, and it makes a huge difference in these people's lives - the kids' lives, the families as well. And we thought what better way to be able to get our hands dirty and help and have fun with it," Ben explained to 3News Contributor Matt Kaulig.

Candace says it was important for them to give back to kids in their hometown.

"This is home and you see the need. I think having our two kids in the schools [we are able to see] the need is definitely there and it's only growing," she told 3News anchor Jay Crawford.

The Ben Curtis Family Foundation partners with the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank to provide essentials that students can take home on days they're not in school.

'In our bags, we do six meals and four snacks... so it's really just a bag of food to get kids through the weekend when they're not in school, because most of these kids are depending on the school for their meals," Candace explained.

It's a cause that hits close to home for Ben, who is best known for overcoming the odds with his incredible 2003 Open Championship win.

"I grew up in a working class family. My grandfather built a golf course in a small town of Ostrander, Ohio. Total about 200 people, a very small town," he said. "For me to be able to overcome that and to make it on the PGA tour, not only get there, but to win a few times and have some great success [shows you can overcome the odds]. So that's what we talk about. It doesn't matter how small you are, you can do great things and hopefully we're providing that for our kids."

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