Next time you're giving to a food bank, give tampons

No matter how nostalgically you may look back on it, being a 14-year-old girl is hard work. Between teenage acne, bitchy classmates, and the ever-present fear of being dumped, you’ll look back on it one day and cringe. Life can seem like one big balancing act. But imagine for a second that on top of all that stuff, when your period comes there’s nothing to soak it up. No tampons, no sanitary towels, just the wedge-of-toilet-paper trick and a desperate hope that nothing leaks through.

The so-called "tampon tax’" - VAT paid on sanitary products owing to their status as a luxury item - is getting a lot of attention in British media at the moment. But being able to afford tampons in the first place is a "luxury" that not everyone can afford. When it comes to what to donate to food banks, the first things that pop into your mind are likely a bag of pasta or a can of beans, but for too many women period poverty is as real and pressing an issue as food poverty. Whether through awkwardness or ignorance, sanitary products remain one of the most under-donated charity items.

Molly Hodson, head of media and external affairs at The Trussell Trust, who operate over 400 food banks in the UK, explained the impact of this shortfall on women:

“It’s really important, especially in terms of dignity, to be able to cope. We’ve heard some horrible reports from some of our food banks where women were having to use newspaper and that sort of thing. Obviously you have to be resourceful in these situations and people come up with all kinds of coping mechanisms but we’d prefer they didn’t have to cope, and that they actually were able to have what everybody else has.”

In the UK, the use of food banks has seen a steep growth over the past five years. In 2011-2012, The Trussell Trust provided 128,697 three-day care parcels. In 2016-2017, they distributed 1.2 million, including over 440,000 to families with children. In addition to those run by The Trussell Trust, there are a further 680 food banks operating in the UK, so the number of people in need of this kind of support is thought to be much higher. This growth is also being replicated in the United States, with Feeding America food banks now distributing a staggering four billion meals every single year. Period poverty has been declared a "menstrual crisis" in the media.

Among the key concerns surrounding the lack of access to sanitary provisions is the potential impact on women’s health, with some women reporting that they are making do with just one tampon per day. Aside from the risk of developing potentially fatal toxic shock syndrome, which can be caused by leaving tampons in for longer than the recommended time, prolonged use can also lead to unwanted smells, putting women and girls at risk of bullying and ostracisation. The use of other "make-do" methods reported by women, including newspapers, toilet paper and rolled-up socks, poses a real risk of infection.

However, it’s not only health that is being affected by period poverty, but education too. According to the charity Freedom4Girls, who were contacted for help by a school in West Yorkshire last year, more and more girls are now missing school because they and their families cannot afford sanitary products. One teenager explained to the BBC how she: “

taped toilet roll to her underwear and missed school "every month" because of her period.”

With the age that girls start their periods at steadily decreasing, this problem is likely to affect their education from an earlier stage.

In the USA, initiatives designed to tackle period poverty have included making menstrual products available for free in the bathrooms of all New York City state schools. But in other US states and in the UK, schemes like this are yet to be put in place - even GPs cannot distribute essential sanitary products because of their status as a non-medical luxury item. In government, there appears to be little movement, with the UK’s 2017 Autumn Budget failing to address the issue, despite cross-party calls to help alleviate period poverty. And so, the responsibility falls to charities and food banks, and by extension, the goodwill of normal people like you and I.

So how can you help? Well, there are a few things:

The next time you buy tampons or sanitary towels for yourself, buy an extra pack and donate them there and then. Many supermarkets now have food bank donation points.

Make financial donations to a food bank so they are able to purchase sanitary products directly. This can be done via The Trussell Trust's website.

Look for other organisations that can help women facing this or similar situations. In the UK, The Homeless Period, which provides free sanitary products to homeless women is lobbying the British government to provide them free of charge in homeless shelters, as they do contraception.

And perhaps most importantly of all... stop being embarrassed to talk about periods - speak about them in the office, on your social media, in front of your partner. Half of the world’s population have them every single month. The quicker we end the stigma surrounding periods, the quicker people will feel comfortable donating tampons and sanitary towels.

There’s one final message though: no matter what you give, keep giving. Other non-food items in high demand include toiletries such as toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving products, as well as household items such as laundry detergent and washing up liquid. Because let’s be honest, if you can afford a couple of quid for that impulse tub of ice cream, you can afford a bottle of shower gel or a can of beans to make someone else’s week a little easier.