How advocates around Colorado are fighting period poverty
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Dozens of people in pink gathered in the Colorado State University Lory Student Center as music blasted and volunteers packaged period products into bags for schools across Northern Colorado.
Period packing parties — try saying that three times fast — are making their way around the state as the Colorado Legislature waits to hear a bill requiring all middle and high schools to provide menstrual products to students.
The bill, called the Free Menstrual Products to Students, passed through the House Education Committee and is awaiting a vote on the House floor. The vote is not scheduled yet.
“These period products are needed to have students stay in school and be present and have access to education,” said Diane Cushman Neal, founder and president of Justice Necessary, a nonprofit advocacy organization that surveyed how periods and access to hygiene products affected students.
Solving period poverty, which the National Institutes of Health defines as lacking access to education, products and sanitation around menstruation, can’t wait, advocates said.
The inability to afford menstrual products is impacting 59% of teenagers in Colorado, according to the study from Justice Necessary.
The same study — which surveyed 220 Colorado middle and high school students — found 90% of respondents got their period while in school and did not have necessary products, leading 80% to miss class and 66% to miss after-school activities.
“As menstruators, we don’t stop and say ‘today is the day I need to have this in my bag,’' Cushman Neal said. “All of us know what it’s like when you need one and don’t have it. Especially for teenagers, this can feel traumatizing.”
The new bill builds on the Menstrual Hygiene Products Accessibility Grant Program, which became law in 2021. That program allows schools to use grant money to purchase menstrual hygiene products and install dispensers and disposal receptacles.
The Denver Post reported that the grant awarded about $100,000 to 40 districts and schools in the 2021-22 academic year. The following year, 32 more districts and schools received $100,000. But the money from the grant sunsetted.
If passed, the Free Menstrual Products to Students bill would require Colorado to earmark $400,000 to schools for period products each school year.
Justice Necessary hosted period packing parties around the state throughout April, where participants packaged thousands of pads, tampons and sanitary napkins into paper bags for students across Colorado.
Jessica Brasselero, volunteer coordinator with Loveland-based nonprofit Grace Upon Grace, said the process is more important now than ever because inflation has driven the costs of hygiene products up and federal assistance programs like SNAP do not cover them. The National Organization for Women reported period products cost about $20 per cycle.
“We want to keep our students in the classroom as much as possible, learning and growing so that we can really get at the root of the cycle of period poverty,” Brasselero said.
In Colorado classrooms, Brasselero said, the issue can feel taboo, leaving many menstruators feeling embarrassed to talk about periods and their inability to afford products.
“We very much want to dismantle barriers,” Brasselero said. “If you need a period kit, you can get a period kit.”
Depending on the school, event organizers said products will be kept in nurses offices, restrooms or both. Schools with gender-neutral restrooms will staff period kits in those restrooms.
“Come as you are,” Brasselero said. “If you need something, we will get you help.”
Quinlan Ruttenberg, a freshman Colorado State University student studying social work, said speaking openly about reproductive health helps destigmatize the topic and improve public health.
“As female-presenting individuals, I think it’s so important to break the stigma,” Ruttenberg said.
“I honestly think it starts with conversations and events like these where people from all backgrounds can get together and say ‘OK, we’re going to help the other female-presenting people in our state and in our town so they don't have to feel ashamed.’”
Alison Berg is a reporter at Rocky Mountain PBS. Alisonberg@rmpbs.org
Cormac McCrimmon is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. Cormacmccrimmon@rmpbs.org