Period Poverty Awareness Week runs from May 20 to May 28. But for Care Collective of Southwest Michigan, it's every week.
The group distributes period kits in discrete packaging to schools and other partners that work with youth. The goal is to keep teens in class and connected to the community.
Sarah Koestler is the executive director.
“When teens have access to the products they need, they attend school, they feel reduced shame and stigma, and they can engage more in their school and community,” Koestler said.
A study by the non-profit advocacy group PERIOD. and Thinx, the period underwear manufacturer, found that period poverty affects nearly one in four students.
In the city of Kalamazoo, more than half of families didn’t make enough money last year to meet basic needs. That’s according to the United Way’s 2023 ALICE report. It found that 56 percent of families couldn’t afford housing, child care, and even diapers and menstrual supplies.
For people in this situation, Koestler said, period supplies are often cut from the family budget. Care Collective, formed in 2022, provides some relief.
“When you're a parent and you're worrying about meeting your kids’ basic needs, that stays at the forefront of your brain,” Koestler said. “And when you have one thing less to worry about, you have a greater capacity for all of the good things that families deserve.”
For Koestler and her small staff of employees and volunteers, meeting a family’s basic needs benefits the whole community.
Along with menstrual supplies, Care Collective also distributes diapers in Kalamazoo County.
J Ludeker is the organization’s outreach director.
Ludeker explained how they carefully repackage a month's worth of donated and purchased supplies in discrete packaging, to help young recipients feel comfortable because a menstrual cycle is a private and personal experience.
“A student can go to, you know, their office in their school, get one of these kits and they don't have to necessarily walk around school displaying to everybody, ‘check it out, I have tampons, I have pads'," said Ludeker.
Ludeker said the objective of Period Poverty Awareness Week is to encourage people to talk about it to help reduce the stigma associated with menstruation.
Care Collective is asking people to make a post in support on social media. Or consider volunteering to make period kits on a Tuesday evening through the organization’s website.
