May is a month packed with awareness campaigns. Each one aims to gain recognition of a specific issue and help people understand the seriousness of it and how they can help. Period poverty, the lack of access to period products and hygiene education due to financial restraints, is one of these critical issues. May 11-17 was National Period Poverty Awareness Week but Summit Health Cares turned the week into a month-long recognition. Throughout May, SHC worked to raise awareness of period poverty through the Fresh Start program, which provides free period products, health education, and compassionate support to those who need it.
Period poverty is widespread. One in three women and girls struggles to afford period products. And this lack of period products has detrimental effects. One in five low-wage women has missed work, school, or other important events due to lack of period supplies. “We believe that access to hygiene is a basic human right that empowers individuals to live with confidence, dignity, and equality,” explained Pamela Singer, SHC’s Director of Operations & Community Engagement. “No one should have to miss out on life because they don’t have basic hygiene products.”
Throughout the month, SHC worked to pack and distribute 35,000 period pouches, which contain around a day’s supply of period products, to local women and girls. But with the help of more than 300 volunteers, SHC surpassed that goal and instead, gave 47,500 women and girls a Fresh Start to their day.
The work doesn’t stop with Period Poverty Awareness Month! Through Fresh Start, SHC collects donations of new, unopened period products and provides them to those in need. With the help of many Summit Health volunteers and community partners, SHC bundles tampons, pads, liners, wipes, and other hygiene products along with educational information in discreet Fresh Start Pouches and in larger Fresh Start Totes. Products are distributed to schools (elementary, middle, and high), after-school programs, food pantries, women’s shelters, community organizations, and more all year long.
To learn more, click here: https://www.sh-cares.org/how-we-help/fresh-start/. To donate and make a difference, click here.Together, we can break the stigma, remove barriers, and support healthier, more confident lives.
During Period Poverty Awareness Week Month, SHC was pleased to distribute period products to over 50 organizations, who put them directly in the hands of those who needed them most:
- ACQC, NY
- Boys & Girls Club, Hudson County
- Boys & Girls Club of Clifton
- Boys & Girls Club of Lodi
- Boys & Girls Club of Newark
- Boys & Girls Club of Plainfield
- Center for Hope and Safety
- for Great Expectations, Somerset
- CUMAC, Paterson
- of Education, Brooklyn
- Diaper Bank of North Carolina, Durham, NC
- Durham Rescue Mission, Durham, NC
- East Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC
- East Side High School, Newark
- Ebenezer Food Pantry, Newark
- El Centro Hispano
- White Plains
- El Centro Hospital, White Plains
- Eva’s Village, Paterson
- Families for Families, Wyckoff
- Family Promise, Morris Plains
- Father English, Paterson
- GRACE, Summit
- Greater Refuge Food Pantry
- Guy B. Phillips Middle School, Chapel Hill, NC
- Hope Through Care, Clifton
- La Casa De Don Pedro, Newark
- Mercy Center, NY
- Momma’s House, NY
- My Sister’s Place, White Plains
- New Covenant Food Pantry
- Nourish NJ, Dover
- NY Department of Education
- Oasis, Paterson
- Queens College, NY
- Ruby’s Vision, Paterson
- SAKHI, Brooklyn
- Samaritan House, Westchester
- Salvation Army, Plainfield
- SDA Food Pantry of the Oranges
- Self Care for Recovery, Westchester
- Sharing Shelf, Westchester
- Joseph’s, Elizabeth
- The Coachmen, Westchester
- The Hoboken Shelter
- West Side High School, Newark
- Wharton Borough School District
- WomenRising, Jersey City
- YMCA Newark
- YMCA Paterson