How this NYC non-profit is fighting period poverty with donations and workshops

there are so many major issues facing the World At Large so often seemingly smaller problems are overlooked human issues that affect a smaller population for example issues that many of us might not even know about but thankfully there are ordinary people who are thinking about these things and working to make their communities a more Equitable place for all and here on veli we' started featuring some of these folks whose small acts of courage have gone a long way when you think of poverty what

comes to mind maybe homelessness food insecurity a lack of Health care but many people who experience poverty also struggle to pay for basic needs including basic hygiene needs and if you're a person who menstruates you're also having to come up with money to pay for period products every month ever heard of the pink tax on average a person who needs them spends $240 per year on period products that someone who doesn't uh than someone who doesn't according to the National Organization for Women

now imagine getting your period every month and not having the money to buy these period products or not having reliable access to a bathroom one study published in the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found that roughly one in five people 21% cannot afford period products every month this plight has become known as period poverty there are serious health risks that come with period poverty those who can't afford products like tampons or pads often resort to unsanitary methods like scra

ps of cardboard or old socks some are forced to miss school or work it's a problem that's underd discussed partly because it only affects a portion of the population but also because of the stigma about talking about periods when Co hit in 2020 Carrington Baker then a junior at St John's University in Queens New York spent her free time volunteering at local food pantries and researching poverty in her community Carrington soon realized that the people being served by the shelters people who did

not have enough money for food probably couldn't Buy period products either so she and some of her friends used their own money to stock up on pads and tampons and began Distributing them at food pantries and shelters Carrington was right there was a strong and direct correlation between food insecurity and period poverty the demand was high and she realized that she needed to find a way to get a lot more products Carrington has now transformed this group of friends into a volunteer-led nonprof

it called for women by women period get the organization is made up mostly of her friends her sister and her mom they're a small group but their small acts of courage are making a big difference joining me now is Carrington Baker founder and CEO of for women by women period starting with an excellent Name uh for the organization Carrington welcome thank you for doing this uh let me just I want to just move ahead in the story once you you gathered an original stash of products you and your friend

s used your own money that in theory should be going to your life uh to buy these period products then what happened once you once you ran through that so I honestly started reaching out to different um menal hygiene companies just seeing if we could just find an organization that would a company that would support us I use LinkedIn just contacting their operations um directors and I got very lucky in this video is actually us receiving our first big prod donation from Kora an amazing company th

at gives back to um those in need that experience per poverty and we got 300 and something thousand products from them and it filled three storage units which we have distributed majority of that at this point and this was back in 2022 when we received those products how do you figure out there was a need for this I mean obviously you were at food shelters and if people were showing up there clearly they didn't have the money to buy their Basics so was that just intuitive to you that if they can

't buy soup then they they may not be able to afford period products honestly it was not at first I ended up coming across a YouTube video and it really explained homelessness and periods in New York City and that's where of course living in New York City and seeing people homeless never thinking about menal hygiene products even though I'm a woman who minates myself and once I came across it I was like oh my gosh this makes a lot of sense of course they need this they don't they're not able to

get just food and menual highd products are very expensive so at that point I was like I want to do something no matter how big or small and I just want to get back in any possible way just honestly Within Queens community at first and then from there that need just kept growing we kept hearing companies organizations reaching out to us asking if we had products to distribute and that's when we really realized there is a mark there's an area for this that we can help and we're going to do it you

also lead um workshops about menstration Equity uh what does that mean um mental Equity has a lot into it of course period poverty is involved but even just making sure that we're giving that proper education as well for administration and making sure there's that equal access in all public spaces um even just people who are able to purchase products they should still be able to access menal products in a public space like a library or even airports or just big businesses and even grocery store

s so Minal Equity really is fighting for that in the law space um and what they do is they're trying to get laws pass to make Metro products free in the United States congresswoman Grace Ming is one of the congresswoman in New York city that is working on that and she's an amazing woman that I've able been able to speak with and she's working on getting those laws passed so that people have equal access regardless of their financial situation and are things changing I mean other than the fact th

at you said you're willing to do anything small or big and that's the beauty of the whole thing you you weren't worrying about the big picture you were doing what you could but are things getting fairer for women yeah yes and yes and no I would say other a little bit ahead than United States right now but there is is they're working on it I would say there's a lot of organizations like mine that are doing the work that we do in different parts of the United States that are really contributing to

ending that period poverty in different um communities but it is there's a lot of push back still at the end of the day from Congress with passing those laws and finding a way to make it accessible for all and I feel like that's something that Congressman Grace is really working on to get those laws passed to make it fair for everyone but it's not an easy process at all carington uh fantastic that you're doing it fantastic that you're doing it for all the right reasons and fantastic that ultima

tely you may move the needle for a lot of people who didn't even know this was a problem Carrington Baker is the founder and CEO for women by women period