"This is the richest country in the world. There's no reason kids should be going to school hungry. Food is something that everyone should have. It just is."—Actress Viola Davis, on her philanthropy work for "Hunger Is, a new campaign by the Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation."
Davis, who has so far helped raise over $4.5 million for Hunger Is, experienced food insecurity during her own childhood, and shares her story of growing up with hunger:
After the first-of-the-month welfare check arrived, Davis' parents would buy groceries, yet the food would quickly disappear. "It was like, if you don't eat it now, it'll be gone, and you're going to be hungry for the next—lord, who knows how long," Davis remembers. She constantly plotted how to get food, befriending a boy whose mother would give her banana bread, or joining a summer program for the free Kool-Aid and doughnuts. She even remembers digging through a Dumpster. At school, she says, "I was always so hungry and ashamed, I couldn't tap into my potential. I couldn't get at the business of being me."Viola Davis is awesome. I love her acting, and I love her for helping kids get at the business of being themselves, by helping put food in their bellies.
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