LAFAYETTE, La. — A story a lot of ladies will be able to relate to — you're back in the classroom, when you realize it's "that time of the month" — and whether it be because of cost or lack of access, you're unprepared. Now your focus is away from the lesson at hand, and instead on finding the products you need to learn comfortably and avoid embarrassment. But what if you can't get what you need?
According to the National Institutes of Health, "period poverty" is defined as just that — 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.
But one Lafayette woman is working to change all of that for local students.
Tiffany Steward started The Period Purse Project back in 2021 with the goal of ending period poverty. She says it all started with a $250 donation from the Do Good Project, which with a little help from her friends at the local Zonta Club and previously the Junior League of Lafayette, became what it is today.
"This is support the way we need to be supporting, actually feet on the ground, getting out there and doing what needs to be done," says Dory Thomassie, Area Two Director for Zonta Club District 10 and a former teacher in Iberia Parish. "A lot of schools limit students to exactly how many times they can go to the bathroom during class in a year, like there are sign-out sheets and times I could've gotten in trouble for letting a female student go, but sometimes you can't say no."
The goal is to provide students the products they need to get through the school day, so they don't have to miss partial instruction or a full school day, plus some to spare for when they're at home in case they need it.
"I was lucky enough that my mom made sure I had what I needed growing up, but not everyone has that luxury, but you're a girl, so you give them out if you have them and see someone else in need," Steward says. "A lot of people don't realize that there are no vending machines on school campuses these days, and it can be daunting for a girl to explain why she needs to leave class throughout the day."
Each period purse includes a few sanitary pads, tampons, and several sanitary wipes which students can find in their school bathrooms, nurse's stations, and even the front office. Steward and other members of the Zonta Club supply about 5,000 units, which also include extra feminine supplies and a pamphlet explaining the project.
The Period Purse Project is currently providing supplies to 27 elementary schools, 12 middle schools, 8 high schools, and five charter schools in Lafayette Parish each quarter.
"Every woman has dealt with scarcity before, or has had to create a makeshift pad with toilet paper, socks, paper towels, anything they can find," Steward tells me. "The thing is, we shouldn't have to do that. They're using the toilet paper for free and that costs, so why can't they have pads and tampons?"
Studies show these efforts are invaluable to students. In a survey of more than 1,000 students ages 13 to 19, 70 percent say the school environment makes them especially self conscious about menstruation, with more than one of three reporting that lack of access affects their performance in the classroom.
"By the time they get permission to leave the class, find the product, get to the bathroom, change, that's about 30 minutes," says Steward. "And you figure a class is 40 minutes long so all the material they've covered, the instruction time, that's all out of the window for a girl who doesn't have access. It's also about leveling the playing field between girls and boys in the classroom."
According to the Lafayette Parish School System, while there are 41 staff members employed in the LPSS Nursing Department, they aren't obligated to have these products on hand, so help is appreciated. I was sent a statement by Amanda Blanco, public information officer for the school system, which you can read in full here:
"Last March, the Junior League of Lafayette donated approximately 1,800 period purses that were divided and distributed to each LPSS middle and high school. The period purses allow a student to stay at school if they start their menstrual cycle during the day and do not have any supplies on hand.
The period purses, including refills, are administered through the LPSS Nursing Department, which employs approximately 41 staff members."
Steward tells me the success of this project takes a village, with donations of things like tampons, pads, wipes, and even purses being paramount. If you'd like to help your local students via The Period Purse Project, you can click here.
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