At the luncheon for Variety's Power of Women event, "How to Get Away with Murder" actress Viola Davis gave a moving speech in which shared her struggles during childhood.
On Friday, October 10, Viola Davis opened up about struggling with poverty as a child.
"Although my childhood was filled with many happy memories, it was also spent in abject poverty," Davis shared about her growing up years in Center Falls, Rhode Island. "I was one of the 17 million kids in this country who didn't know where the next meal was coming from, and I did everything to get food."
The actress shared how she went through different difficult situations trying to survive. "I have stolen for food. I have jumped in huge garbage bins with maggots for food," she said. "I have befriended people in the neighborhood, who I knew had mothers who cooked three meals a day for food, and I sacrificed a childhood for food and grew up in immense shame."
Davis, who took up Drama at Rhode Island College, has been involved with the "Hunger Is" campaign and the actress attributes her past as the reason for her active involvement.
"I didn't decide to join the Hunger Is campaign to save the world. I didn't. I set out to save myself," she shared as part of her speech. "It has been the joy of my life to be able to start this campaign and know that that little girl with the ponytail [referring to herself as a child] and all the children like her - 17 million, 21 million families in this country that have to be in food assistance programs - that all of that can be eradicated.
Davis continued, "They can go about their business of being who they are and not sit in front of an SAT like I did, falling asleep because I was hungry. And not befriending people just because they know their mother makes banana bread after school. And jumping trash bins. No one's childhood should be spent like that."
Along with Viola Davis were Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lopez who also spoke at the Variety luncheon.
