Natasha Huey, a senior at Dos Pueblos, and Ella Bailey, a senior at Santa Barbara High, recently launched the Santa Barbara Period Product Drive, geared toward providing menstrual products to those who don’t have access to them. They collected products through bins set up at various locations around town, including all 13 Starbucks locations in Santa Barbara and Montecito.

“I think what inspired me was that one of the biggest issues in society is definitely the lack of basic needs,” said Natasha. “When you first think about it, it’s food and clean water, which are very important, and there’s plenty of food drives and donations going into clean water… I think those are what’s highlighted the most. And then you think about what else you use everyday that’s necessary, and that’s hygiene products.”

Period Poverty is defined as a lack of access to menstrual products, scarcity of education, and inadequate hygiene facilitates. Not having access to period products leads to significant health risks and discomfort, and it impacts nearly 500 million internationally, compared to the 1.8 billion individuals that menstruate in the world.
As of 2022, 23 states still have a tax on tampons, despite them being a necessity and not a luxury.

The Period Product Drive hopes to educate and encourage communication around the topic of menstruation. “In the end, I kind of just hope to normalize a conversation around menstruation, because it’s kind of something right now that people don’t want to talk about… I don’t think it should be a topic that is kind of entirely in a corner of conversation,” said Natasha.

The Period Product Drive has gotten support from numerous women’s organizations such as Women’s Economic Ventures and Girls Rock Santa Barbara.

During the week of October 1st – October 15th, bins were set up at various locations around town for menstrual products to be dropped off. Those products were then collected on the 16th and donated to the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission and PATH.

For more information, check out their website at:
https://sites.google.com/view/sbperiodproductdrive/home