A United Approach to Free Menstrual Products
Thus far, we have learned how municipalities and cities act as service providers; however, many of the services that are critical to supporting a city’s inhabitants, especially the most vulnerable populations, are provided by the civil society. Civil society actors can act as policy entrepreneurs who facilitate the development of new, progressive policies. Not only that, but civil society serves as form of governance, whether that is “with” or “without” the government. My newfound understanding of civil society’s role in governance, in combination with the United Way’s presentation and our upcoming project, made me recall an encounter I had with United Way as an intern with RBC.
While I worked at RBC as an intern for a summer, I met many employees who volunteered with United Way, including young professionals who went through RBC’s career launch program where they were stationed at United Way for 3 months. I heard many stories about the work United Way was doing in the London-Lambton community, but one that particularly stuck out to me was their feminine hygiene product drives through a smaller organization called Tampon Tuesday.
Tampon Tuesday, as an organization affiliated with United Way, was created in 2009 after CTV News London toured a food bank and the Community Relations Coordinator noticed that there were no feminine hygiene products available. Feminine hygiene products are still the least donated product to food banks, despite being the most requested. At RBC, Tampon Tuesday provided large bins covered in pink branded marketing, and sure enough, the bins were full to the brim — everything provided by RBC customers and employees. Being there each day to see the products grow was exciting to me — it made me realize the power of United Way working in the community. United Way’s support of grassroots, boots on the ground organizations gives so much power to an important cause. One woman noticed an issue in her city’s food bank, and United Way helped to bring that issue to the forefront.
Later that year, I volunteered for a community-based organization that worked with the food bank. At the food bank, I saw first hand the need for menstrual products, and the lack of stock. More interestingly, there were different levels of demand depending on the type of menstrual product. Private donors, like Tampon Tuesday, make a significant impact on local food banks and how they can support their clients. United Way, in this case, governed “without” government, providing goods and services to a population who needs them, without help from the bureaucrats. But, witnessing first hand the need and how it was met, I had a new appreciation to abolishing the tampon tax. In 2015, Canada abolished the tampon tax, a tax on menstrual products because they are not considered basic necessities (which normally receive a tax exemption). However, perhaps policy must become more bold as to include providing free menstrual products to all women and girls. Maybe the United Way could work “with” government to develop such a policy.
All food banks are accepting menstrual products, and your Shoppers Drug Mart also accepts donations on behalf of Tampon Tuesday. To date, over 400,000 boxes have been donated!
