Advocate for Aunt Flow at your school

Period poverty is the lack of access to period products and education. We believe fighting period poverty is one of the most tangible steps we can take toward gender equality.

Aunt Flow's mission is to fight period poverty and stigma. Alongside ensuring that businesses and schools offer free period products for employees and students, our donation program supports activist-led pilot program initiatives and various grassroots nonprofit organizations.

Aunt Flow believes in a multifaceted approach to achieving menstrual justice, including service, education, research, advocacy, and investment.

1. Organize menstrual product drives and fundraisers in your community to collect and donate pads and tampons to local shelters and food pantries. 
2. Lead educational workshops in your community about menstruation, sustainable menstrual products, and destigmatizing menstruation. 
3. Apply pressure to policymakers, decision-makers, and local leaders, advocating for policies that improve access to menstrual products and education.
4. Ask your school to include menstruation and menstrual health as part of the educational curriculum. In fact, 77% of students believe there needs to be more in-depth education about menstrual health.
5. Conduct and support more peer-reviewed research assessing the prevalence and health implications of period poverty. This data is important for supporting more grassroots advocacy efforts.
6. Urge schools and businesses to invest in high-quality menstrual products free of cost for everyone.

We recommend estimating product quantities based on supplemental, as-needed period product usage at approximately 15 pieces per menstruating student per school year. You can use our pricing calculator or meet with an Aunt Flow Happiness Developer to get a custom quote that includes our reduced educational pricing for a quick budget estimate. For a one-time individual donation request, apply to our donation program.

If your school offers toilet paper for free, then advocate to your principal or superintendent to prioritize budgeting for freely accessible period products too. When dispensers are first installed in bathrooms, there could be higher than normal usage, which then levels out over time once students learn that period products are not just a one-time luxury item but will be available ongoing.

We recommend offering period products for free in the restrooms rather than offering period products solely in the nurse’s office or upon request.

Offering period products only in the nurse’s office perpetuates the incorrect notion that menstruation is an illness or something to be ashamed about. Instead, we encourage schools and students to advocate for access to period products in restrooms for free to remove barriers to accessing period products.