Suffern Rotary Club Receives $10,000 for Period Product Initiative

This past Thursday, the Suffern Rotary Club received $10,000 from Palisades Credit Union in support of their Period Product Initiative (PPI). This initiative works to provide the Sloatsburg Food Pantry with period products for low income households and to help provide freedom for women to engage fully in life and work.

The genesis of this program came from an article that Suffern Rotary Board Member and PPI Founder Elizabeth Carrion-Stevens came upon in 2020. This article focused on period poverty in Uganda, and how having access to basic menstrual hygiene supplies and sanitation increased school attendance, improved the rate of graduation and empowered not only the girls but entire families and communities. Carrion-Stevens realized that if this issue was affecting women in Uganda, it must be affecting the women in her own community as well. Thus the Period Product Initiative was born to help alleviate period poverty at a more local level. 

Period poverty is defined by the National Institute of Health as  “the lack of access to safe and hygienic menstrual products during monthly periods and inaccessibility to basic sanitation services or facilities as well as menstrual hygiene education ”. According to the Journal of Global Health Reports, “Two-thirds of the 16.9 million low income women in the U.S. could not afford menstrual products in the past year, with a half of this needing to choose between menstrual products and food”. At the current time, period products are not covered under any public assistance programs such as SNAP, and they are taxed as “luxury items” in 21 states. This leaves women faced with impossible questions regarding their health and wellness.

Being forced to go without period supplies or to wear them longer than desired can lead to devastating health effects, both physically and mentally. When women do not have access to period products, many will resort to using rags, napkins, paper towels, or reusing pads. This leads to urinary tract infections, bacterial vaginosis and more painful medical issues. 

Not being able to access sanitary items needed to take care of this biological function also directly leads to increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression due to the shame and embarrassment around the lack. 

If a young woman’s family cannot afford to purchase period supplies, this could force her to stay home rather than participating in extra curricular activities or from attending school. This begins the cycle of absenteeism, leading to lower grades, a lack of a social circle and a disinterest in school. These effects snowball into women obtaining lower level jobs, which in turn places women at a lower status in society. And so the cycle continues. 

According to former New York Representative Carolyn Maloney, “American women spend well over $2 billion per year on feminine hygiene products, and the average woman will use over 16,800 tampons and pads over the course of her lifetime”. Suffern Rotary Club recognizes this need right here in Rockland, and has been working tirelessly under the guidance of dynamic duo Carrion-Stevens and Pam Hess, Suffern Rotary Past President and PPI Committee Member. The two, alongside the Rotary Club, have collected donations through a variety of events such as the Rockland Distance Women’s Festival, working in collaboration with Good Samaritan Hospitals at galas and events, and engaging the local school district and various houses of worship in collecting donations. 

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Last year, Palisades Federal Credit Union donated $5,000 to PPI. After seeing the impact this donation has made, they have now doubled it to $10,000. 

Before this donation from PFCU, the club was struggling to keep products on the shelves at Sloatsburg Food Pantry. With the shelves being stocked every 4 months, surviving on donations alone was simply not enough. With the donation from PFCU, the Rotary Club is able to utilize this budget along with other donations to make this project more sustainable for the long term. 

Carrion-Stevens and Hess’ goals for this movement is to find even more providers with the ability to donate products to other Rockland food banks, as well as raising awareness around the state of New York. As the awareness rises, they hope that state legislators will work to institute legislation that will make these products accessible to anyone who needs them. 

For now, they are continuing to pour their hearts into Rockland. “…We just really want people to know that the Rotary Clubs in Rockland County are looking to connect with their own community and what we need right here…we are here to help our neighbors”. 

The Suffern Rotary Club collects donations through Venmo @suffernrotary, by scanning the QR code that below, which well send you directly to an Amazon registry, or by making a tax-deductible donation by check to The Suffern Rotary Community Fund, PO Box 103, Suffern, NY 10901, in memo indicate PPI.