Photo by Matt Marcinkowski
From left: Jessica Adams, Angie Wiseman, and Anne Sebert Kuhlmann
Saint Louis University researcher Anne Sebert Kuhlmann was assisting Dignity Period, an organization that helps Ethiopian girls stay in school by providing menstrual supplies, when something occurred to her: “Period poverty”—the lack of access to menstrual supplies and education—garners a lot of attention in developing countries such as Ethiopia. But why was no one talking about it here?
Kuhlmann received a grant from the Incarnate Word Foundation for a 15-month study on how low-income women in high-resource countries like the United States manage their periods, publishing her findings in January. Nearly two-thirds, or 64 percent, of the 183 low-income St. Louis women Kuhlmann and her team surveyed were unable to afford menstrual hygiene supplies such as pads or tampons when they needed them at some point during the previous year, with 21 percent lacking supplies on a monthly basis. Many resorted to using cloths, rags, paper towels, and even diapers to get by. “Every single woman who we talked to was willing and interested to discuss it,” Kuhlmann says. “Many of them were grateful that we asked, because no one had before.”
“We had obviously guessed that there might be a period poverty issue in the St. Louis area,” says Angie Wiseman, Dignity Period’s executive director, “but after [Kuhlmann’s] research came out, we said we absolutely need to be doing something for our girls, women in our own backyard as well.” Kuhlmann’s research is now the foundation for a community-wide response to St. Louis period poverty.
For Jessica Adams, founder and director of St. Louis Area Diaper Bank—the city’s only—the research was a call to action. She recently expanded the bank’s initiative to partner with the national Alliance for Period Supplies, creating a St. Louis chapter that’s launching in August. Under a model similar to the diaper bank’s, the initiative collects tampons, pads, panty liners, and other supplies to distribute to partner organizations.
At the alliance’s first committee meeting, Kuhlmann, Adams, Wiseman, and interested St. Louisans gathered in the diaper bank’s Wellston warehouse. Surrounded by rows of menstrual supplies (approximately 400,000, with a sponsor, U by Kotex, giving them a 200,000 head start) on one side and diapers on the other, Adams asks: “What outcomes do we want to see as a result of the distribution of period products?” The members start a list: giving people dignity and control; eliminating the risk of health issues caused by alternative or unsafe products; improving work and school attendance.
Photo by Matt Marcinkowski
The last is something school districts such as Normandy, the alliance’s first pilot partner, see too often. The alliance will supply products for partner schools’ bathrooms and offer first-period supply kits (which include a how-to note) and monthly tampon or pad kits. Each one comes with 45 individual products in a variety of sizes.
Another initiative? Providing reusable options, such as the cloth pads donated by Dignity Period.
Adams expects distribution partners to have products in August, and she is looking for future school districts and educational opportunities. But even though distribution can alleviate the current need, lasting change, Kuhlmann says, has to come from legislation. Until then, the best course of action is awareness.
Find out more about St. Louis’ Alliance for Period Supplies here.
