LIJVS tackles ‘period poverty’

Staffers donate menstrual products to area food pantry for those in need

By JUAn LAssO jlasso@liherald.com

It’s a dilemma faced by countless women when they are menstruating. They need access to sanitary pads and tampons to get through their periods, but due to persistent obstacles like the prohibitively high cost of period products, their menstrual needs go uncared for. It’s a phenomenon known as period poverty.

Research estimates that around 11 million women in the U.S. struggle with it.

For some, normal daily life can come to a halt because of it, as they pull themselves away from school or work while they are menstruating.

The issue has long been shadowed by stigma, but people like Lissa Nelson, Long Island Jewish Valley Stream’s employee health manager, and the hospital’s nursing director, Renee Sanchez, are joining a growing chorus of health advocates and lawmakers aiming to normalize women’s menstrual well-being, and taking steps to make certain that teenage girls and women have adequate access to period products in schools, offices and public buildings.

Nelson and Sanchez, for their part, are making inroads by providing those products where the

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