Teri Lawless loves underwear. She said if you feel good underneath, you’re more confident and secure.

Lawless was listening to a National Public Radio story one day about a woman who collected 3,500 bras for her 35^th birthday. The woman was a part of an organization called I Support the Girls. Lawless finished listening to the story, found the woman on social media and called her about starting a chapter in central New York.

The collaboration came to fruition, and Lawless now runs a local chapter. Almost a year later, the organization has collected thousands of hygiene products for women. Along with the collection, Syracuse’s ISTG chapter recently donated $500 worth of menstrual hygiene products to City Hall and City Hall Commons as part of a pilot program for the duration of one year.

Lawless said this idea was first brought to her in the summer by Elizabeth Hradil, a City Hall internwho was concerned about the lack of menstrual hygiene products in the bathrooms.

Hradil said she noticed that the menstrual hygiene product machines in the bathrooms at City Hall required dimes, instead of the usual quarter.

“A dime is such an obscure amount of money to have,” Hradil said.

Hradil said it took her and two other women to find a dime to test out the machines. She said one machine was out of pads, and the other had dusty, old tampons.

Hradil reached out to Lawless about collaborating on the project because she had seen the work ISTG had previously done in the community. The program began after the two met with Mayor Ben Walsh.

“A lot of it was not to just get out of paying ten cents for a tampon,” Hradil said. “A lot of it was to set the precedent that this is a resource that half of our population needs.”

ISTG is an international organization that collects and distributes bras, underwear, menstrual hygiene products and other products and services to women, who may not be able to access them due to poverty, homelessness or distress. Under the City Hall program, there will be small baskets in each of the 11 bathrooms, containing a few pads, tampons, panty-liners and information on where to collect more supplies if needed.

The organization has collected and distributed 4.7 million bras and menstrual products to women, according to its website.

Lawless said while some people may receive employee benefits from their jobs, hygiene products may not be something people can receive.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides benefits to low-income individuals and households that are used to purchase food. Hygiene items are not included under the SNAP benefits.

“So you might be able to get a package of hotdogs with no nutritional value, but you can’t get the tampons that you really need,” Lawless said.

Many states classify menstrual products and undergarments like tampons, pads and bras as luxury, taxable items, also known as the “pink tax.”

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CNN reported that 70% of American women use tampons, and on average a woman will use between 11,000 and 16,000 tampons in her lifetime.

In June, the New York State Assembly passed legislation that would prohibit companies from charging different prices for similar products based on gender according to CBSN. The bill moved to the state senate for consideration. Ten states including Nevada, Florida, New York and Illinois have already eliminated the tax according to The New York Times.

Syracuse Common Councilor At-Large Michael Greene said he supports eliminating the tax on menstrual hygiene products.

“Given Syracuse’s high rate of poverty, many women may not have the resources to buy feminine hygiene products,” Greene said. “Making them available to all is essential for ensuring health and dignity for all of our residents.”

Lawless’ goal for the program at City Hall is to expand into other municipal buildings in the city and make the city see the value in investing money into providing menstrual hygiene products.

Greene said if the program is successful, it will continue beyond the one-year pilot program and possibly expand to the city’s parks and youth programming facilities.

Lawless hopes to expand the ISTG Syracuse chapter into Cayuga and Oswego counties, where she said the need for access to feminine products is great. She plans to continue to expand the chapter’s programs within the city and help as many women as she can.

“As an organization, we want them all to feel empowered and feel like they can take care of themselves,” Lawless said. “They can go out, and they can rule the stinking world.”

mogibbs@syr.edu

Published on October 9, 2019 at 10:19 pm