SALISBURY, MD– Salisbury University is expanding efforts to end "period poverty" by supplying free menstrual products to local nonprofits.
One in nine Maryland women live below the poverty line, with many struggling to access period products, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies. A student-led intiative looks to change that statistic on the Eastern Shore.
SU recently donated several pallets of pads, tampons and more to groups across Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties, including:
- Hope and Life Outreach Ministry (HALO)
- Help and Outreach Point of Entry, Inc. (HOPE)
- Life Crisis Center
- Diakonia
- Village of Hope
- Salisbury Urban Ministries
- Christian Shelter, Inc.
- Wicomico County Public Schools
- Atlantic Club
- SonRise Church
- Seton Center
The donations come from a partnership with Teen Vogue publisher Condé Nast and U by Kotex, according to a press release.
The groups selected SU's Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter, Freedom, Learning and Advocacy for Reproductive Equality (FLARE), to distribute free hygeine products on campus and throughout the community last fall.
FLARE also donated to the Wicomico County Commission on Women's Pink Pantry initiative in May, stocking a free resource at the Newton Community Center in Salisbury.