BC funding United Way task force to alleviate period poverty

The provincial government is providing $750,000 in funding to United Way for the establishment of a new task force that will “define long-term goals for ending period poverty in BC.”

That includes expanding access to free menstrual products for those people in the province who can’t easily afford them.

Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister Nicholas Simon said at a press conference Friday in Burnaby that half of the people in BC who menstruate have struggled to buy menstrual products at some point in their lives, while a quarter have had a period where they didn’t have access to necessary products at all.

He also noted 15% of people in BC who menstruate grew up in a home where they didn’t have access to menstrual products.

“Indigenous peoples in British Columbia and people living with disabilities experienced much higher rates of period poverty, and rural remote communities have more limited access to community organizations where they might be able to access these products,” added Neal Adolph with United Way.

“The impact of this is that when people don’t have products, they stay home. They isolate themselves. So that means that they’re not able to go to school, they’re not able to go to work, they’re not able to be a part of their community.”

The task force intends to find the best ways to deliver free products to the community. Simon said while programs in the past have worked to deliver products at places like schools, workplaces, and pharmacies, there may be other ways to improve access for those who are struggling to leave their home while on their period.

The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction says public schools in BC have provided free menstrual products in washrooms since 2019.

The task force will be chaired by Nikki Hill, who’s also the co-chair for the United Way Period Promise Campaign. That annual campaign runs until June 7 this year and aims to distribute 700,000 menstrual products for free.

It also worked in partnership with the City of Burnaby on a pilot program here, which provided free menstrual products at several city locations.

The pilot program ends this July, and as the Beacon has previously reported, the city must decide how to move forward after that.

“So when we do a pilot program like this, near the end of the pilot, we will have been gathering data all along [to determine] what’s the usages, what has been the feedback we’ve been getting from customers or staff, is there anything to anticipate, what are the operating costs, have there been damage to the machines,” Robin Juergensen with the City of Burnaby said in March.

“And all of that data will go back to council because this pilot was an initiative of city council. So we would report back to them, and they would consider that information and decide what to do with it.”

At Friday’s news conference, Hill pointed out that rising inflation has made things even harder for people who struggled to afford menstrual products to begin with, with people having to make tough decisions about where to spend their money.

Friday’s announcement is in addition to a $107,000 grant in 2020 that funded the United Way’s period promise research project.