2 Out Of 5 Women Have Trouble Accessing Period Products — Here's A Solution

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — For women who are between jobs or in unsafe living situations, personal care products can be hard to come by. To help meet that need, elected officials and the Junior League of Northern Virginia recently celebrated the opening of the Britepaths SNAP Gap Pantry in Fairfax.

The Period Pantry, which is located in Britepaths’ offices at 3959 Pender Drive, provides the central Fairfax community with consistent, dignified access to a range of women’s health and hygiene products.

“We serve the community with financial assistance, food assistance and financial and workforce counseling services to provide wraparound services to help guide folks to self-sufficiency,” said Cora Lundgren, food security and youth programs manager at Britepaths. "A lot of that is providing the necessary supplies, necessary food and financial assistance to help them in a crisis.”

Many of Britepaths’ clients are women in transition. They may have children, lost a job or are leaving an abusive relationship and receiving help through the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“This supports our emergency food support clients,” Lundgren said, about the Period Pantry. “When they receive their food support in the form of a grocery gift card, they also get a package of hygiene supplies, menstrual products, diapers, if they need them for their children. That has kind of been the function. It's supplemental items that can't be purchased with SNAP.”

The April 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony was not only about drawing attention to the Period Pantry, but to celebrate Britepaths’ new partnership with JLNV, which has committed to donating more than 8,000 period products annually to the pantry.

“Two out of five women have issues accessing menstrual products, and that is an essential need and it should be free and accessible wherever we can,” said JLNV President Erica Gouse Bledsoe. “We were so excited when Britepaths actually reached out to us about this collaboration.”

The new pantry is the sixth one that JLNV supports around the region and the first serving the central Fairfax area.

Prior to becoming a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Del. Holly Seibold (D-Vienna) read an article about Dress for Success, which provides women with suits to wear to job interviews. She was amazed to discover that those same women didn’t have access to menstrual supplies and undergarments.

“A lot of people were doing really great work in this space, but really forgetting some of the essential items to help women get back on their feet and children to go to school,” she said.

After reaching out to several organizations, including Britepaths, Seibold confirmed that there was a gap that needed to be closed.

“I held a collection drive in my house in January 2015, and the response was incredible,” she said. “We just did a party and called it Mardi Bra, at the time, because it was around Mardi Gras. The entrance fee was to bring a pack of pads or tampons or a new bra. That was important to me, for the dignity piece, that it was a brand new bra and underwear.”

Seibold went on to work with State Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Herndon) in the Virginia General Assembly on legislation that removed the sales tax on menstrual products and required every school to provide access to menstrual products for female students.

“That's how we get meaningful public policy that matters to the people who are living in our communities taken care of,” Boysko said. “Now we're opening this new pantry where individuals who are still having challenges accessing period products, even though we have removed some of the barriers.”