Medford High Schoolers Expand Access To Feminine Products

MEDFORD, MA — Students in Medford High School's Center for Citizenship and Social Responsibility program have resumed the "Free the Pad" project, an initiative designed to improve access to feminine hygiene products in schools.

The project was previously run by MHS alumni in the CCSR program. Junior Melina McGovern, who is helping run the project, said the goal is to "locally fight Period Poverty in our community, as the unequal access to menstrual care mainly affects students."

"The average cost in a menstruating person’s lifetime is $6,360 and too many families struggle with the decision of, to buy or to not buy even before COVID," McGovern wrote in an email.

In Massachusetts, the I AM Bill would make menstrual care free in public schools, but it has not yet been passed. In support of the proposed legislation, McGovern opened donation boxes in the central offices at Medford High School, Curtis Tufts and Medford Vocational Technical High School.

Hygiene products that are donated will be distributed to student bathrooms.