The TV star lends her voice to American Nightmare: Trump’s Breadline Kids, which was filmed over the course of four months amid the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
The programme follows five young people, including 13-year-old Shawn in Ohio, who lives in a small trailer with his mother Crystal, and one-year-old sister Dior, while his brother Edward, 15, lives with his grandparents due to a lack of space.
The family survive on food stamps to live but are hit by food shortages during the pandemic.
It also follows Kyah, 14, her sister Kelia, 18 and their mother Becky, who have become part of America’s hidden homeless.
Becky lost her job at the start of the pandemic meaning she couldn’t pay the rent. Since then, the family have been sofa-surfing and many of their possessions were auctioned off when Becky could no longer afford to make payments to the storage company that had been holding them.
Smith said: “I’m privileged to be narrating American Nightmare: Trump’s Breadline Kids.
“It’s important to remember we live in a global world and we need to look out for each other. It’s therefore important that children and families are able to lift themselves out of extreme poverty.
“It’s no good being a prospering world with the level of poverty that exists. I hope people will watch this film and be inspired by the children it features telling their own stories.”
American Nightmare: Trump’s Breadline Kids is on Channel 4 on November 2 at 10pm.
