Aggies are working together to provide feminine products to middle school girls.
Three Texas A&M student organizations — FRUGAL, HEAT and Rosies — are collaborating to provide young women with feminine products at nine different middle schools in the Bryan-College Station area. On April 20, 250 care boxes with one week’s supply of feminine products inside will be packaged and sent to the schools.
The young women who receive these products are at the age of starting womanhood, so the organizations added a pamphlet to help them understand how to use the products properly. Public health junior Megha Chandran, president of Finding Resources for Underprivileged Groups in Aggieland, or FRUGAL, said they ordered the project’s supplies from another organization that placed free pads and tampons in some of Texas A&M buildings.
“We’ve ordered from [Aunt Flow] to create these care packages, which would include pads, underwear, other hygiene products and some clothes such as sweatpants and leggings to give to the middle schools,” Chandran said.
Bioenvironmental science senior Sammy Figueroa, environmental chair for Human Environmental Animal Team, or HEAT, said they selected schools to donate to based on socioeconomic status.
“We were looking at the poverty line that is in Bryan compared to College Station to find out what middle school to serve, since at first we didn’t think we would have enough product to cater to each middle school,” Figueroa said. “That way they would be better fit when their first period comes or if their family does not have the funds to buy those products.”
Lisa Mendez, a counselor at Davila Middle School, said the packages provide a way for young women to feel more comfortable when asking for the product.
“We’re not just giving them just one,” Mendez said. “They have enough to suffice them for as long as they need those products.”
The bags the school received in the past made the products discrete so other students wouldn’t be drawn to what was in the recipient’s hand.
“They’re more willing to come in here and ask for them and not be embarrassed to walk out with the products … so it brings more comfort to the girls at our school,” Mendez said.
Chandran said FRUGAL focuses on reaching people who focuses on reaching people who can’t meet their basic needs, which is why she joined the organization.
“I definitely wanted to be part of making a change in Bryan-College Station, at least as a student, so I think that’s what led me to … strive for a solution for whatever means that I can do,” Chandran said.
Davila Middle School is a Title I school that receives more government funding due to the low-income status of many students.
“Sometimes the needs of our kids are a little bit more than what some of the other students may need, and it’s something that you don’t think about, like feminine products or just general items that they need that we’re able to give them through this program,” Mendez said.
Students can drop off feminine products in the drop box by Evans Library’s exit doors. The organizations also accept donations for “community flow” through their GoFundMe.
