East Idaho Period Project working to ensure feminine hygiene products are free and available to those who need them

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - One in five school-age girls are unable to afford basic period products, resulting in them missing school or other events. The East Idaho Period Project is working to end period poverty in east Idaho.

Founder Avrey Hendrix said she got inspiration from the Utah Period Project.

"I saw them doing that and I thought, We need this in our state," Hendrix said.

The group has three main goals: Work with lawmakers to ensure every school in the state has feminine hygiene dispensers in their bathrooms, provide weekly packs for girls to take home (and a three-month supply for summer break), and get dispensers into school bathrooms in the region.

Hendrix says they're already working on getting dispensers in schools in the area.

"We were blessed with a donation from the Child Advocacy Center, or the CAC," Hendrix said. "They donated $30,000 worth of feminine dispensers to 30 schools from Aberdeen to Ashton. We're super excited about that."

The money is going toward however many dispensers the school needs.

"The machine has 500 tampons, 500 pads. So they get one refill with their machine," Hendrix said. "And then a lot of schools have the budget already in place, they're just using it in different ways, like keeping them in the counselor's office or the office. So they (the school) will just purchase it from the company called Aunt Flow."

The dispensers will be installed in May.

Hendrix says the schools that don't have dispensers or don't have enough, have pads and tampons in the office for girls to grab.

"I just think there is a better option to have them in the bathrooms," Hendrix said. "When we get our periods, we don't want to run to the office and they don't really need to know we have our periods."

She says while some girls may be comfortable getting them from the office, some may not, adding it's a basic right to have them readily available.

"The whole idea behind it is like a 21st-century bathroom. We should have toilet paper, tampons or pads, and paper towels. That's those are all human needs and rights," Hendrix said.