Carissa Woytach
The Chronicle-TelegramAug 05, 2023 6:00 AM
As part of the biennial budget passed last month, schools across Ohio will receive funding for menstrual products and dispensers for grades 6-12 this fiscal year.
The bill provides $2 million toward dispensers and $3 million toward purchasing products, according to a news release from Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood.
The bipartisan provision puts Ohio with more than 20 states addressing access to feminine hygiene products in schools. Funding can be used for tampons, pads or similar items, according to the bill text.
In a July 26 news conference, Antonio said a lack of access to products can cause barriers to students.
“We’ve regulated the provision of toilet paper and paper towels in restrooms, so too we should do the same for menstrual products,” Antonio said during the news conference. “Menstruation is a natural, biological occurrence experienced by more than half the population and should not be treated any different than any other basic bodily function.”
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce plan to release applications for funding in the coming months, Senior Legislative Aide Brendon Embry said. Embry works in the office of state Sen. Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville.
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce was newly created in the budget and is now a cabinet-level agency reporting to the state governor.
In Lorain County, several schools recognize the need for menstrual products in districts; and many organizations are stepping in to fill those needs.
Lorain Schools’ Director of Wraparound Services Stephanie Alexander-Johnson said the district heard about the proposed funding when the state budget passed.
She knew there was a need in all of the district’s 13 buildings, from elementary to high school — often filled by school nurses providing requested items to students.
“We are making sure that we provide those needs already,” she said, and while happy for the opportunity at state funding, they are always thinking ahead.
Oberlin Schools sees a similar need in its district.
Jay Nimene, director of student, family and staff support, said the funding will be an asset for students.
“Not all young girls can afford to purchase products needed for their menstrual days, and at times that fact may be embarrassing,” he said.
Not having access to menstrual products can reduce attendance. According to the National Education Association, 84 percent of teens who struggle to afford menstrual products have missed school.
It’s another barrier to education districts like Lorain are addressing with wraparound services, and any funding from the state would be a boon to the effort — and have a positive impact on attendance, Alexander-Johnson said.
“Period poverty is such a big push right now. … We have to find ways to end that because every young lady and woman needs to have these resources,” Alexander-Johnson said. “So we need to make sure that we provide that.”
Part of providing those resources means partnering with organizations in the county.
Path and Green provide menstrual and personal care items to girls at Lorain Schools and eight other districts in the county.
Founder Sarah Yoder started by collecting products for Clearview Schools in early 2021, inspired by a TikTok video of a church in Oregon providing personal care items, alongside clothing, jewelry and makeup to girls in need.
At Lorain High and other schools she provides monthly care packages to teens who qualify for free/reduced lunch and sign up for the service, and hygiene bags for fifth-grade girls after they complete a health class module on puberty.
Since its inception, Path and Green have distributed more than 16,000 menstrual items or more than 640 packages. Alongside the menstrual products — packaged in discreet, brown paper bags — are often hair care products or small bottles of nail polish, and a card with words of encouragement.
Looking at the funding allocated in the state budget, she said it’s a great start, but expressed concern at how much each district could expect to receive when there are nearly 1,700 high schools in the state and only $5 million allocated to the project.
“I think it’s a really great start,” she said. “I’m excited that they’re hearing us and that it’s an issue. But what I’m concerned about is how it’s being implemented.”
She said for smaller districts like Firelands the funds will go much further, but it may not be enough to cover the costs in larger districts’ middle and high schools.
“Just putting on another thing that they’re going to have to take care of — I don’t think it’s a bad thing when it’s done well,” Yoder said. “… I always want my services to be a relief (for school districts) and not a burden … where I feel like this initiative, they’re putting a lot of extra work on school districts as a whole.”
Yoder does everything short of finding students in need herself and distributing the actual packages in the building, she said.
She said some of the feedback she’s heard is that the items Path and Green provides take a burden off girls and their families facing “period poverty.”
An end to “Period poverty,” or the inability of someone to cover the costs of menstrual items, is a key goal of the Community Foundation of Lorain County’s Women’s Fund.
In 2021 the fund launched Change the Cycle, noting on its website that families struggling with food insecurity rarely have the funds to purchase hygiene supplies — especially for school-age girls.
According to the Women’s Fund, 18 percent of women in Lorain County live below the federal poverty level, and one in five women and teens reported missing work or school due to a lack of access to menstrual products.
Brittany Lovett, Community Foundation marketing and communications officer, said Change the Cycle has been partnering with local libraries, schools and the United Way of Greater Lorain County to get products in the hands of those who need them.
“I’m glad they’re focusing on our youth,” Lovett said of the state’s funding allocation. “But the Women’s Fund, they’ve been already distributing things and I think this is just a way that we know the middle schoolers, the high schoolers are going to be served then they can focus on those ages where individuals may need it outside of that.”
The Women’s Fund’s goal is to collect 1 million pieces of menstrual products by 2026, and any money raised is used to purchase products in bulk to hand out to those in need through The United Way and other partner agencies.
Since September the fund has collected 180,000 pieces and distributed 140,000, Lovett said.
“It’s one of those things that if it affects you, you know,” Lovett said. “Regardless of what financial situation you’re in, if you need period products, you need them. So the fact that they’re able to supply them to people who may not be able to get them otherwise is really commendable.”
To donate to Path and Green, visit pathandgreen.org or its Facebook page. To donate to the Women’s Fund, visit peoplewhocare.org.
Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.
NO COAST MENOPAUSE 