Throughout May we are celebrating Women’s Health Week at the library by focusing on a basic need of many. There are people in our community unable to go to work or attend school because they don’t have the money to buy period supplies. This affects their mental well-being, their earning potential and their opportunity to learn.
Around 16.9 million people who menstruate live in poverty in the United States.* Among those, two-thirds said they struggled with affording menstrual products in the last year, and 14% of college-aged women in a study surveyed said they struggled to afford period products.**
You can help break the cycle of period poverty. The library is hosting a period product drive at all of our locations to benefit our local communities. Donations dropped off at the Columbia and Southern Boone County Public Libraries will benefit True North, and period products brought by the Callaway County and Holts Summit Public Libraries will benefit Our House.
Visit your library location May 1-31 and look for designated collection bins. We will be accepting the following items:
- Boxes of liners, pads and tampons (any variety)
- Menstrual cups
- Individual items may be donated if they are in their original packaging.
The recipients of your donations will be grateful.
*Bhuchitra Singh, Jiahui Zhang, and James Segars, “Period Poverty and the Menstrual Product Tax in the United States,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 135 (May 2020): 68S, https://doi.org/10.1097/01.AOG.0000665164.05365.d0.
**Katherine Andersh et al., “Period Poverty: A Risk Factor for People Who Menstruate in Stem,” Intersectional Science Policy 18, no. 4 (September 27, 2021), doi.org/10.38126/jspg180401 and Lauren F. Cardoso et al., ”Period Poverty and Mental Health Implications Among College-Aged Women in the United States,” BMC Women’s Health 21, no.14 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-01149-5.