Newly created community organization focused on giving feminine supplies to help students
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RIGBY — A group of local women are pushing for girls to have better access to feminine supplies in the bathrooms of middle and high schools at no cost to them.
“1 in 5 girls experience period poverty. They have the inability to afford basic period products often resulting in missing school and other events while menstruating,” said Avrey Hendrix in an email to EastIdahoNews.com
Hendrix created the “East Idaho Period Project” last month, which is a community organization that has about 10 women in it from the Jefferson County area. The goal is to eventually serve every school in the region with its services.
She explained to EastIdahoNews.com there are two surveys that they’ve created for both parents and students to get data for the region that would help give a better understanding of what students and parents need and would like to see.
For example, in the 17 question student survey, some of the questions asked, “Would you like to see free menstrual products offered in campus bathrooms?” or “Have you ever missed significant class time (more than a quick trip to the restroom) because you didn’t have the products you needed in school?” and “What location would you prefer feminine supplies to be stored?”
Click here to take the student survey.
Click here to take the parent survey.
Hendrix said she hopes the East Idaho Period Project can get a grant through the Child Advocacy Center to get feminine supplies dispersed regionally in school districts like Jefferson, Clark, Blackfoot and several others.
“One of our first goals is to do a pilot project with this grant money to get dispensers in the bathroom because a lot of schools have period supplies, which is great, but it’s in the counselor’s office and offices, not in the bathrooms so that’s our first push and our second goal is to have weekly packs for girls that need supplies at home,” she said.
Hendrix got the idea of starting the East Idaho Period Project after following news in Utah.
“Utah is trying to get a bill passed in their legislature to get feminine products into the schools at no cost to the girls. So I have been following that progress for a few months and I just thought, ‘I wonder if Idaho has this?’ she said. “We just see the need for feminine supplies equal to toilet paper and we know there is period poverty and it’s just not talked about.”
According to Fox 13 in Utah, the bill to put period products in every Utah school passed. Click here to learn more.
“I feel like we are doing our females a service in talking about it, making periods normal and advocating for them,” Hendrix said.
Currently, Hendrix said there are parents and students that have filled out the surveys but she wants to reach a wider audience. Posters with the survey QR code have been made and will be delivered to local middle schools and high schools.
“I feel like I want to make change and so if I can do it, then I will,” said Hendrix. “We know there is a need out there.”
Click here to follow the East Idaho Period Project on Instagram.
