LUMBERTON — Lumber River United Way has launched “On The Spot,” a new community engagement project to provide public schools in Bladen, Hoke and Robeson counties with period kits.

The kits are designed to help students have access to enough products for healthy management of periods.

Period Poverty, the lack of access to adequate hygiene products to manage menstruation in a healthy way, is a hidden impact of poverty. A 2019 study found that 84% of students reported having missed school themselves or knowing someone, personally, who missed school due to lack of access to menstrual products.

In North Carolina, menstrual products are considered “non-essential” and are taxed as luxury items. On average, it costs $50-60 a year to manage this luxury. There aren’t any public benefit programs that assist with the management of periods. If there is more than one person in a household needing hygiene products, it gets expensive, fast.

When a student doesn’t have access to the hygiene products needed to have healthy periods, they risk more than their health. They could miss school, and for some students, missing school means not having access to breakfast and lunch. Students also could be at risk of not passing their grades, and when held back, students are at higher risk of dropping out of school entirely. Period poverty is a problem that teachers and counselors have been addressing, out of their own pockets, for generations.

LRUW will be delivering 1,600 kits to Robeson County Schools.

“The Public Schools of Robeson County is grateful to be a part of this project to increase access to sanitary pads and materials for the health of our students across the district,” said Jan Newman, PSRC Nurse supervisor.

Tate Johnson can be reached at 910-739-4249 or at [email protected]