As a 9-year-old growing up in Central Falls, Rhode Island, she remembers vividly, “Arriving at school on an empty stomach left her exhausted by 8:30 a.m. because if you're hungry, you can't focus—you have no juice. You’re listening to people who say, 'Aw, my mom made me breakfast this morning, I didn’t want that cereal,' and you’re thinking, 'You didn’t eat your cereal? You had cereal? With milk?'"
“ I did everything to get food. I have jumped into huge garbage bins, with maggots for food. I have stolen for food, and lied to get meals because her family simply didn't have enough to eat.”
“I made friends with people in the neighborhood who I knew had mothers who cooked three meals a day... I worked hard in school, but the shame of being poor was always there."
“As early as the 3rd grade, I carried a deep, deep shame and isolation, especially around my peers and teachers. How do you tell someone that you’re hungry? How do you say that to a teacher who’s worried about maybe your grades, how you’re progressing in class?" And you’re thinking, 'Can you just give me something to eat and maybe I can answer that?'"
“School lunch was often the only complete meal I received in a day. During summer breaks, when school lunches were unavailable, keeping fed became a daily crisis.”
“My father worked as a racehorse groomer, and my mother worked factory jobs, but their income—combined with monthly food stamps—consistently ran out before the end of the month.”
“We lived in condemned, rat-infested apartments without hot water, gas, or functional plumbing. The thing about being hungry is you don’t think about anything else. You don’t get at the business of being you. You don’t get at the business of being anything.”
"On the street, I would go up to people and say, Do you have a quarter? Do you have 50 cents? Or people who would come up to me, especially older men, might I add, who’d say, 'You’re so cute. I’m going to give you 35 cents if you give me a kiss on the cheek,'" she said. "So I figured out a way to get that— give them that kiss on the cheek and get that 35 cents."
“We were “po.” That’s a level lower than poor. The trauma and anxiety I had in my childhood still linger. You don’t get out. That’s what happens. You have to reconcile; I’m not ashamed of it, because I know that every single part of it made me who I am... I’m owning my story so people can be less alone."
This young girl faced the toughest childhood one can imagine: poor, black, and hungry could not stop her. She found her secret to success. She discovered acting as a career at nine years old when she saw legendary actress Cicely Tyson performing on television.
She majored in theater and graduated in 1988 from Rhode Island College. Naturally, this determined fighter applied to Juilliard, widely considered one of the hardest schools in the world to enter, with an overall acceptance rate that typically hovers around 5% to 7%. To gain acceptance, she had to nail the audition, which she did with flying colors, and later graduated.
A star is born. She has had and continues to achieve a brilliant career in theatre, television, and movies.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for her powerful performance as Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I raise the curtain and introduce the one and only, Viola Davis.
Viola Davis is heavily connected to several major hunger relief programs, most notably serving as a prominent national voice for the "Hunger Is" campaign and No Kid Hungry.
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