Academy Award nominated actress Viola Davis is going public with her childhood struggles with hunger as she raises awareness through the Hunger Is campaign.
Although Davis is now an A-list movie star, she often went without food while growing up poor in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
“I was one of those kids who grew up hungry. I’m 48 years old now, and it’s only been recently that I can admit that I would jump in trash bins looking for food and I would steal from the corner store because I was hungry,” Davis recently told People magazine. “I would fall asleep in school on a daily basis because we had nothing.”
Davis also admitted to being ashamed to invite friends over to her home because “my house was a condemned building – it was boarded up and infested with rats.”
Hunger Is is partnering with Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation to bring attention to issue of child hunger.
“We have an image of hunger that comes from Africa, but this is America,” Davis said. “And unless your belly is distended, we don’t have an image of what hunger looks like here.”
The full interview with Davis in People will hit newsstands today.