Ben Curtis Family Foundation

Northeast Ohio Eye Surgeons is committed to being an agent of social change in our community and beyond. We are proud to highlight our partnership with the Ben Curtis Family Foundation, which provides children with food and toiletries for long holiday weekends throughout the school year.

It all started when Ben and Candace Curtis were watching a television program on hunger in America. The program followed a family in which both parents had recently lost their jobs. This family was struggling to make ends meet, choosing between paying the electric bill or buying food. This prompted Ben and Candace to do some research on how this issue affects their hometown of Kent, Ohio. They discovered that at the time, almost 50% of students in Kent were on a free or reduced lunch program. Shocked by this statistic, Ben and Candace decided to start a program to help feed these children when they weren’t in school over long holiday weekends. In 2013, the Ben Curtis Family Foundation started in one school in Kent, Ohio with 135 bags. Now in 2019, the foundation is currently serving 13 different schools throughout Kent, Ravenna & Barberton, sending home over 2,000 bags a month. Once a month, volunteers come to pack food and supplies up into these bags for the children to take home.

For the past two years, Northeast Ohio Eye Surgeons has raised awareness and volunteered their time for the Ben Curtis Family Foundation. We have also donated specifically to a Very Merry Dinner, an event the Ben Curtis Family Foundation hosts around Christmas time for local children and their families. Each family receives enough food supplies to prepare a Christmas meal at home. Plus, each child receives a present from Santa!

“It is through the generosity of NEOES employees and their families that the children get to experience a wonderful holiday season. I am happy to help alleviate the stress of the holidays for the parents and allow them to see the joy on their children’s faces upon receiving gifts from Santa!”

-Tiffany Jones, The Ben Curtis Family Foundation

Continuing the important work that the Ben Curtis Family Foundation has started is so important to us at Northeast Ohio Eye Surgeons. If you would like to join us in getting involved, we encourage you to sign up for their foundation’s newsletters and check out their website here: http://www.bencurtisfoundation.org/.