Making a difference – period

Beth Steele has had first-hand experience of having to choose between food and the products you need when you’re someone who’s menstruating.

It’s a choice no one should have to make.

But that very uncomfortable dilemma has inspired the 24-year-old Sydney woman to help others, and perhaps her story will inspire you, too.

Steele is a participant in the Northside Changemakers Program, a Sydney Minesbased organization that provides funding and support to help people in the community become agents of positive change.

Steele decided she wanted to tackle “period poverty.”

“I’ve personally had those times in my life where it’s that time of the month and the budget just didn’t work out, and I didn’t have the couple of extra bucks to grab that pack of pads or tampons, or whatever it may be,” she told Saltwire Network. “It was rough. But I know that a lot of people have been in that same predicament: ‘Am I going to pay for that food, or am I going to get tampons?’”

Period poverty is an all-too-common issue in Atlantic Canada.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick, free menstrual products have been introduced in schools so that no one has to find themselves without supplies when their period starts. It’s an initiative that’s meant to address the stigma that still surrounds menstruation and allow people to attend to their personal hygiene without the embarrassment of having to ask a teacher or guidance counsellor for help.

As Steele noted, the high price of food these days can force menstrual products to the bottom of the shopping list, when they should never be considered luxury items.

Steele is filling two cabinets with everything someone might need at that time of the month, and she’ll place them next to two community food cupboards in Sydney, so that people can access them whenever they want.

“It comes down really to items like pads, tampons, liners… but there’s also the things that come in handy for people who are unhoused when they’re dealing with their period, like wet wipes, fresh underwear — things that people may not think about — because it’s hard enough to deal with menstruation when you do have stable housing, but you don’t stop menstruating when you’re homeless,” she said.

Other groups have tackled period poverty, as well. Libraries in the Halifax area, for example, collect donations of menstrual products on “Tampon Tuesdays” for distribution to community charities, and make them available in their own washrooms to anyone in need.

But Steele’s project is an example of the kind of real difference one person can make — albeit with support and guidance from a community organization.

And it’s something that other communities might consider, too.

As we all know, menstruation doesn’t stop when the school day ends or the library closes.