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Breaking the Silence: Period Poverty in America · Moral Injury Support Network Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: All right?
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, good day.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is Dr Danny Roberts, president and CEO of Moral Injury Support Network for Service Women Incorporated.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Moral Injury Support Network podcast, and today our guest is Emmy Clevenger of Period Kits, north Carolina.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hey, how are you doing, emmy?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Good to see you.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'm good, Dr Roberts.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me as a guest today.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're welcome.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: So a little background on Emmy.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: She joined Period Kits after volunteering at a kit building event in Colorado and realized how real of an issue period poverty is.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Born and raised in North Carolina, she decided to move back and establish Period Kits in C to support her home state.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: She holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Redlands and a master's in leadership from Point Loma Nazarene University.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Emmy is a Navy veteran and loves the outdoors, travel, hiking, her rescue cat, Kia, and North Carolina sports.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: She is passionate about community driven nonprofits and volunteering.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Did I get the name of your cat right?
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think I might start calling her Kia now, like a little Kia soul.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: But Kia, I like that.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so so again, um, emmy, thanks for joining us.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Um, tell me a little bit about your Navy experience.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Happy to do so and thank you again, Dr Roberts.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I'm happy to partner with Moral Injury for Service Women and excited to be on the podcast show today.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I joined the Navy in 2010, right after graduating high school.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I'm a third generation Navy vet and the reason that I joined the military was to be able to pay for college.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: When I was graduating was around the time of the 08-09 housing crisis 09 housing crisis.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of you listeners as well as you, dr Roberts, are familiar with the Lehman Brothers and all of that uncertainty.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: And, being a 18 year old female who came from a poor family, I was scared, very scared.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: So education was always number one for me.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I knew I wanted to get my master's degree.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I was determined to get my master's degree, so I took advantage of that wonderful thing that a service members get is called the GI Bill, and during my six years I was interior communications electrician.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: I served on the USS Nemitz out of Bremerton, washington, for two years and then I did a three-year sea tour on the USS Bunker Hill guided missile cruiser CG-52 out of San Diego.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: That was combined five years at sea made it to E-5.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So I was IC2.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Did one deployment during Operation Inherent Resolve 2014-2015 on the cruiser and then, when my orders were up in 2016, I decided it was time to go get that master's degree.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: So I got out and, as you shared my bio, I was able to publish it and have zero student debt in the process.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: The military really provides some great benefits for service members and along with those benefits there's often a lot higher degree of stress than many other kind of jobs save for, like maybe EMT, firemen or police officers, that kind of thing.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Just, the military is incredibly stressful and it's, you know, sort of owned your life in many ways while you're on active duty.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But I spent over 30 years in the army myself and and um, you know it, it there's a lot of great stuff to the lifestyle, military lifestyle but um, so, in the Navy, you know a lot of women have some pretty traumatic experiences in the military.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Was that part of your experience too, or what was your Navy experience like?
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, without a doubt, being a woman in the Navy, especially in 2010,.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: We were coming off of the do not ask, do not tell being revoked.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: There was a lot of uncertainty with that.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: There was a lot of uncertainty with that.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: They were doing some last minute cleanup during training command where a lot of men who did not believe that women belonged on ships and they took that feeling and some of the task and the work made sure that they let those feelings be known.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: So the military is already a stressful environment, as you mentioned, dr Roberts, and for me and I'm only speaking for me on this podcast you're already in a stressful environment.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: So to add, the stress that you're not good enough because you're a woman and have that stress and that saying be told to you day by day until it beats you down.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I would be honored and happy to talk to a military service woman who did not go through that so I could bless and, you know, celebrate them, because I think most of us and I'm sure you've heard most of us have gone through that to some degree.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, two things about that.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: One, I've, you know, in interviewing women veterans for our moral injury research, I had more than one say I think this happens to everybody, it's just that not everybody's talking about it.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: You know, like, but there's nobody I know that this kind of stuff hasn't happened to.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And then the other thing is to, more than one woman said it just, you were treated just like it's just wrong for you to be here.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And what one woman said it's wrong to be a woman, right, like this feeling of being treated like just based on your biology, it's wrong for you to be here, not based on work ethic or anything else, because a lot of women in the military have a strong, often a stronger work worth work ethic than men, because they have to just to survive, you know, um, and and they're, they're very, you know, trying to.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: It's a bigger uphill climb to get promoted, to get recognition, to get seen as as significant, but just, you know, just being treated like you're just wrong because you're a woman and this is not where you belong.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And all that, to have to deal with that every single day, day in, day out, is, um, you know not, I didn't have to deal with that Just imagining what it would.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: That's like.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, it's no wonder that women have often have very short careers, because who can deal with that day after day, right?
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, you're correct and I'm like, I'm trying to think back, because the one thing with trauma, as you're aware, is you push it down, you tend to want to forget it, not bring it up.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: You tend to want to forget it, not bring it up.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: And with it coming on, 10 years next year, wow, since I've been out of the service, a lot of the things in the beginning that caused the trauma and the memories live in the back of my mind, like most veterans, and I don't think I experienced it a lot.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: On the carrier.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I think the carrier was more diverse, but being on a smaller ship, primarily male-led, is where I saw it a lot and it was just unfortunate.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And when I started it was a lot more, because I know this isn't political, I don't talk politics, but it was back when they were trying to make dei thing right.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: They were trying to incorporate, you know, eeoc into the navy on ships, not that it wasn't already there, but they were trying to do a good job promoting it.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Is what I mean by it right right and I'm hopeful that it's better now, 10 years later, than it was 10 years ago yeah, who knows?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I mean that's.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I hear that a lot from women like I hope it's better now or maybe it seems to be getting better.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Um, I'm not sure it is.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I think certainly the military's narrative is improved, but there can be a significant gap between narrative and reality, for sure.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And one last question about your Navy experience and I want to get on to some other things but Navy experience and I want to get on to some other things but have you found that after you, like you mentioned, you push it down?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: So then, after you left the military, did it?
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Did like the things that you pushed down, did they start bubbling up for you?
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, during COVID.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: It all circled back during COVID for me.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I think you know, going back in such a restricted lifestyle, being told what you can and can't do, surface those memories.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: I tend not to lead with I'm even a veteran or talk about it.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Often I get questions like tell me about yourself.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: And the veteran goes last, or in bios or conversations it doesn't get brought up.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And then people, nine out of 10 times, have said why don't you lead with that?
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and most of the people who ask that question are not military veterans, so I'm not sure if you've heard that before yes, absolutely but why would you want to lead with something that caused you so much trauma?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Right right, what I think a lot of people don't understand well.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: The other part about that is when you're treated not like when you're in service, when you're treated like you're not a real service member, a real soldier, a Marine, whatever it is right, then it sort of develops this subconscious like I don't really consider myself a veteran because I wasn't a real whatever Like they.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: You know, they've expressed that idea that it's like it took me years to to really think of myself as a veteran and a part of that was just because of the so much like demeaning and discrediting during the service that that gets in your head, you know.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And so does that make sense?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: It does.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I've heard people say that I feel a little different.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: I'm proud to be a veteran.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: I don't question serving at all.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I did six years and definitely rode some nautical miles on a ship and put in the work and I earned that title.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I don't lead with it because maybe it's an internal question for myself.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Am I proud of it?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Right, right, yeah, okay, I could literally talk all day about this stuff, but I want to get into the nonprofit you're working now and so you're the executive director of Period Kits of North Carolina.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about what is period poverty.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: It's something I had never heard of until we met and I was fascinated by it because I thought I bet one-tenth of one percent, or maybe one-thousandth of one percent of men have ever heard of this, but I can see it as being really important.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So what is period poverty?
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: period poverty, um, it's just as it sounds.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It's that inability to afford or even have access to hygiene products for, um, for your menstruation or your menstrual period.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Um, these products, I'm sure you're aware pads, tampons, those are common things that people know about.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Also, this could be like menstrual cups as well, and this is a global issue that affects millions of people worldwide.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: It affects one in six women here in North Carolina, where we're at, and one in four women in schools and in the working age also.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: That's.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: That's a startling statistic.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Actually one in six and I lead with that to emphasize that period poverty.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: We hear about it in uganda, kenya, over in africa, third world countries in asia.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: You might have seen a lot of fundraisers over the years like let's get pads over, you know, overseas, let's get reusable pads to Uganda.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: But you don't really see as much of that fundraising for it here in the United States and you don't see most people that you come across knowing what period poverty is and to the degree.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: What we hear often is oh wow, I didn't think about that.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, I didn't know that.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Hmm, that's interesting.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: So that's why we're here.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think about.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I taught eighth grade math for just a couple of months and learned rather quickly like that's not my gig.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: But I'm thinking it was in a small school, relatively poor income area, a very poor income area, I would say, and I'm just thinking now of all the girls I had in class and you know so, two or three of the, based on that statistic, like two or three of of, for every class there were at least two or three girls.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I think more probably just because, knowing where the area was, that we're probably struggling with this because in eighth grade most girls right are getting periods and stuff.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: It could be earlier than that um dr roberts.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: I just dropped off 200 period kits yesterday to an elementary school for third graders wow, holy smokes.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Um, so, and that's something you, you don't like, you don't think of because it just you know as an assumption.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I guess for most people it's just, it's one of those things.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: You just don't think about it unless you're involved with this kind of work, unless you're.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: So what?
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: What motivated?
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Motivated you to start period kids and see.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Growing up, my mother did not tell me what a period was um to expect it, what a woman's body goes through during puberty?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Um why she didn't, I mean great question.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: I still don't know the answer to that, but when I find out I will let you know.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: um so, not knowing about it and then having to go through period poverty by my own mother not buying it for me and then having no access to it, that's trauma in itself, right absolutely so, knowing that I suffered through it and then finding the opportunity to volunteer to advocate for it in colorado when I was in my 20s, when I moved back home to north carolina in 2022, after deciding that I wanted to be back home in the community, I saw that women and girls, specifically in my hometown of Goldsboro, were still struggling, if not struggling more, and nobody wanted to talk about it.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: The stigma is still there and while, thanks to social media, we get to talk about a lot of things, nobody wants to talk about period poverty right so in 2023.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I called up jeff davis.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: He's the founder of period kits.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Founder of period kits, ohio.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Well, he sits as our board chair to help provide that leadership and guidance for our growth here in North Carolina.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Being that we are the fourth Period Kids and the newest and he said I was ready for this phone call months ago when you moved here.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: How can I help?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Let's get started.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: We're coming up on our two-year birthday.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I'm going to plug June 8th.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: We're celebrating at the Dupree House in Smithfield.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Be happy to share that with you, dr Eberts, and I'm going to share that.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: We've already, just in North Carolina, given out over 4,000 period kits since we started.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I mean this year.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: We've already exceeded our fundraising goals from last year, and it's April 4th.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome what we'll do.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: So I'll have you um, all the information you provide me, like links and fundraising events, that kind of stuff.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: We'll put this in the description of the podcast so that people are um, and and we'll put it in our social media stuff, uh, so that people can, um, you know, click to it, go to it, how, donate that kind of stuff.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: So I'm wondering, I want to go back to when you first started experiencing this as a young girl.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: If, to whatever extent that you're comfortable with that, you want to.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I think it might be important for listeners to get a feel for what it was like, as you know, a young girl going through something you didn't know anything about and weren't educated on and then weren't provided support with.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Like that had to be really, really hard.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: You feel voiceless.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: You feel like the dirtiest person in the room.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: You feel like there's a spotlight on you 24 7.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Even when you're in the room alone, you still feel like people are watching.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: It's disgusting to have to take toilet paper and then make your own pad, and it's also very unhygienic, and then for a young girl to have to sit in it all day.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: It just shatters your heart.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: So that's why we're doing this.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for that.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: I know that was a little triggering and I apologize for that, but I think it's important to really understand.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're a man listening to this podcast, without a little bit of that information, you might not even realize.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: A little bit of that information you might not even realize.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: You know, it's really about educating us men because it, you know, when you, when you think about women's issues, right, it shouldn't be just left up to the women to solve them.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: We, you know women, are as important as men are and women, uh, give birth to us.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Women, you know, are a key to helping raise.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: We need women in society, we need women thriving in society as much as men.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: So it shouldn't be just left up to women to solve women's problems, Like we should all men and women work together, you know.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's okay for it to be triggered to talk about, which is why we're doing it, which is why we're having this podcast.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: right, I'm not afraid to be that voice yeah, I appreciate that um but you are right, it is an everyone problem and we've got two male board members and um.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: One of our biggest supporters right off the bat was the elks lodge in goldsboro, a primarily male fraternity, an older one at best, and they all said well, I've got sisters, I've got daughters, I've got a wife right, I've had to buy it before.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Why would we not support it?
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: So we've seen a lot of community representation, of all people.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: I mean you can look on our website.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: We did a community kit build last month.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: We had 17 people come in.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: It's probably four or five men, you know women of all ages, different races, different backgrounds, different sexualities, but for two hours we all cared about one thing helping our community with menstruation.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: We didn't ask these people to be there.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: They were not paid volunteers.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: They showed up off of a Facebook posting.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: How beautiful is that?
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Well, good for them, good for you.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you had that support.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, every nonprofit is looking for that kind of support from the community.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: We don't have a volunteer shortage.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: We don't have a shortage of people who are willing to go out and help get these kids out in the community.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: We've had a courageous and I cannot give enough love for Wayne County, north Carolina, on on this podcast today of just how can I help?
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: When can we help sororities, fraternities, businesses?
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I've had over 150 to 200 people within the last 30 days ask me when can they get something going to volunteer with us?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that's awesome, that's good.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: So what is in a period kit?
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: A period kit is a well like it sounds a kit.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: So we use these reusable kind of like you think of, like the gourmet snack bags that you get like pretzels in.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, yep.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Resealable, and that's what we mean by like reusable for this kit three pads, three tampons, three liners and one hygiene wipe.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: So 10 products we are, and this is our most common kit that we give out.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Dr roberts, we work with our partners on different needs, but this would be a daily, discrete kit, meaning there's enough product in their mix that a woman has access to either a pad or tampon, or a mix of both, every three to four hours for an entire day.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Or if she's got a lighter period, that kit could last her two days.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: And we do monthly options.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: We do fully reusable bags for foster homes, for kids that don't have bags to store their hygiene products in.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: We give them reusable bags through a partnership with Day One Bags ensuring foster kids have Dictomy.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: So, to answer your question, that's the standard period kit, but it's not the only period kit.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so real quick because, like I said, we'll put all this, like all kinds of information, in the show notes description.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: But real quick for people who might be just listening while they're driving their car, or or, or, or something.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: You know what is the one?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: What is the quick?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Like website or phone number or email, or something you can give that people can go to start understanding, educating, seeing how do I get a kit, do I volunteer?
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: like that kind of stuff the best place would start off would be our website period kits.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: So period k-i-t-s n-c dot org okay we also have a qr code that links to a few of our things.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: I could provide you, dr Roberts, but the website gives our history, our partners, our story, our donation page, our wish list, who we're partnering with and also a link to our address and our email and volunteer requests as well.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, good, so let's talk for a few minutes.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: What was it like when you first started this nonprofit?
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Because, as you mentioned, like this is this is one of those subjects that you know and I find in the in the nonprofit world, my my experience, um, it can be tough sometimes, um, trying to raise money or raise interest for an issue that you know only a small percentage of people maybe care about.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: When, when we were, one of our staff members was talking to somebody who's kind of a rainmaker, kind of has a lot of connections to funders, you know, and she was trying to explain moral injury in women veterans, this person, who was not a veteran but was a woman, was really dismissive and was kind of like, well, you know, it would be easier if you were I'm not giving the whole context, but it would be easier if you were really focused on hero stuff, like why can't we highlight the hero, women and this kind of thing, you know?
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And then another person um said, like it sounds, it kind of sounds like to me a lot of women with their feelings hurt, you know, and so we were both, of course, enraged at those comments, um, but it it sort of highlights like not every subject or not everything that nonprofits try to do is popular, right, and sometimes there are a lot of issues in society that people are working to help that others don't want to really hear about.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: So what was it like to start a nonprofit and start like working on this issue that you yourself said nobody wants to talk about?
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: At first.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: I mean after you get past the initial filing the 501c3, getting your tax EIN, anything that you've got to do from a legal standpoint, paperwork wise, we'll get past that.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Everybody knows about period but nobody knew about period poverty.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: So I had to start by talking with a few people that I knew from the community from when I was growing up.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: So I had to establish myself and also explain and introduce what period poverty was.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: And while people are like, okay, yeah, I'm on board, they didn't really know what I meant, like how can we do it?
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Like what's this concept?
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: So I mirrored what we were doing in Colorado by partnering with nonprofits and community support agencies and think of us like a almost like a third party.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: We distribute the menstruation products for them to distribute to the people they serve so they could focus on their mission, and ours is solely menstruation hygiene.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: So it's easy to talk about from that perspective because it's very linear, like, if it's not pads, tampons, liners, cupsers, cups, wipes, underwear in that category, we don't touch it, menstruation only.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: And then once we could sell that concept and get other nonprofits on board, and then they're talking about it.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: That's when people start reacting and understanding what we mean by what is period kits?
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: And the first partner that I got on board was our public library in Goldsboro, because they had been looking at doing something to support menstruation because they'd seen a large problem with it.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: So they were already.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: It was already on their radar.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: So that was an easy conversation and, growing up in that library, it was easy to share my story of my why too.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: So it was a perfect first partner.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Library said a lot of great things, did a recommendation letter for us to the Alliance for Period Supplies, which is founded by you, by Kotex, in 2018.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: So that got us that national recognition From there.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Kind of a stall point, because now people need period kits, right, but we have no money.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Up to this point, you know, self-funded the filing and everything.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: This point you know, self-funded the filing and everything the only donor making a makeshift period kit out of my living room trying to figure out like, what does this look like?
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: How do people want it?
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: The library does it.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: They have kits behind the counter, but we have loose baskets in the library for people to get them in the restrooms.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: It's like, what am I doing?
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: I'm there in the back of the trunk of my car, right.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: I'm building them in my living room.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: It's taken me a lot of time.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: I've got no help.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: I've got a website and that's about it and got a few more partners, got, you know, the website right, started posting on social media and then, when we started getting partners talk to other people and started talking with the United Way, it started to really click in the community.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: And now we've grown to a point where we've got 14 partners.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Those 14 partners are in six counties, so that's 6% of North Carolina.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: We've distributed kits to probably nine or 10 counties.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: I shared the number over 4,000 to you a little bit earlier.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: We're on target to crush that this year.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: I don't want to be too ambitious, but we'll crush over 5,000 this year, if not get close to 10,000 kids with just the demand we're seeing alone.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: I mean 200 kids yesterday to an elementary school.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: I gave out 50 today to Partnership for Children in Wayne County.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: We just did our order request this week.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: I've got a thousand.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Right now people are waiting for between now and june 30th.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: This is just our partners.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: This doesn't stop someone from reaching out a week from now saying hey, we need, you know, 50 kits for this elementary school.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Can you support.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: So now we're at a capacity issue and while we're getting donations to cover our operating expenses and I'm not the only donor still primary donor right hoping to change that soon, right, but now we're able to fulfill that demand a little bit more.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: We've got operation system and process.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: We've identified our weak falls by like saying yes, too much too quick and then having, like, all this big need identified at once, because we're realizing, dr Roberts, that with our partners we have to be consistent and reliable, because the women, menstruators, girls, individuals, people that we're serving that gets these supplies they rely on, on consistency, because it's so hard to ask for this, it's so embarrassing, you almost feel shameful that you can't buy it yourself.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: And then it's there once and then it's not there again.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: So you got to go through that again, right, and that was a roadblock in the beginning.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: And that's, that was a roadblock in the beginning.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: But a long winded way to answer your question is it was a lot of happen to have that talk and a lot of hard work, but we're lucky that we've seen so much success right away.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: We've got a great team in place, a great working board.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: We're all dedicated.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: We have all got the experience.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: We had the right roadmap from Colorado.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: It's not anything anyone's doing.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: So we're not competing with another period kits of Goldsboro or Eastern North Carolina period kits.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: It's just us with a overabundance of need that if somebody came in I've been asked this before well, what's you know?
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: Can you compete with someone else?
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: You know what's your territory?
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: We don't want to exist.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: We're here solely because the community needs us.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: If somebody else can figure it out bigger and better, or the community can band together in end period poverty as a whole, hopefully one day probably not in my lifetime then we'll cease to exist.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: So we're not worried about that and the fact that we have such a need demand.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: It's such a niche thing.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: We're the only one in the community doing it.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: We're hopeful that we, you know we'll get more funding alongside.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: We're growing to the point now, at two years, we start qualifying for grants that we should see some excitement, explosion and attention here shortly.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Good, Good.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: So it sounds like you're doing really well, but of course, there are always needs.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: What's the biggest thing that you want audience to take away from now as far as how they can help, how they can support what you're doing?
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: anyone listening can take from this is learning what period poverty is and seeing what's being done about it in their communities.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: I think education and awareness is the number one thing.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Of course, you know donations never hurt and following and know volunteering.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: But really knowing and understanding and identifying how deep it is entrenched where you live and having being able to have a discussion about it, like you and I are having, it's going to change the narrative and open doors for more people to band together so we can make it where it's as common in the future to go to a restroom to get toilet paper it will be for tampons too.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: We'll get there one day yeah, yeah, I believe you will.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: It's uh, you're doing great work.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: You've, you've seen some success, which really just means know, at least in part, means that the need is definitely there, people are connecting with it, recognizing it.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: But if you give away 10,000 kits a day, or 100,000 kits, there's still going to be women and girls that are missing, right, correct, that are missing, right, correct.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: So there's no like I guess I don't want anybody to take away from.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Well, they seem to be doing okay, they're being successful.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from the standpoint of starting from zero, you're doing well, but when you look at what you're able to do with the need and this is for pretty much any nonprofit that's tackling a legitimate need, is that yeah, but we have a long ways to go.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: So that you know, there's certainly a need for people to donate, for people to get involved, for people to get educated, for people to contribute in ways right.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean we've got a list of over a hundred people and we're saying now to school districts cause we don't have the capacity to serve.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: So, yes, it sounds like we're successful, but we have maybe helped point and add 25 zeros, zero, zero, one percent one time.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: We haven't done that.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: It's not even a handy in a bucket.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: I mean one in six people in account in a how big North Carolina is as a whole.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: We're not even making a large scale in one single county.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Right, we could, but we would have to be five, ten million and that's conservative.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Operating budget, non-profit.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: We're nowhere near that.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Um, anybody's listening.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Who's familiar with the non-profit world?
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: We're still a postcard non-profit.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: So funding and awareness are the two biggest things we need, because we're want to make a larger impact than that tiny bit that we had.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: I mean that we're grateful and we're excited with what we've done, because helping one person is what we're all trying to do.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: Right, being able to help one life, right.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: But gosh, what we can do and what we achieve and aspire to do, it's huge, it's life-changing.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I mean we're talking millions of people.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: It's life-changing, I mean we're talking millions of people.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: So do you know like what does one standard period kit cost $2.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Huh?
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: $2.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: $2.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: So for a $100 donation you're basically 50 periods 50 period kits.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: That's huge though.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: I mean it's like the numbers, like when you're talking millions it seems like overwhelming.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: But when you boil it down to a few dollars makes it makes a difference, right?
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: If you're talking $2 a kit, you know a person listening can think, oh, wow, wow, if I donated, you know, $50, $100 a month, which is then that's 25, 50 kits a month that could go to a woman or a girl in need.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: That's not a ton.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, like I'm not speaking for other people, 50 or 100 bucks for a person might be a lot, depending on you, know, and this is just a difficult economy, of course.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: But I'm just saying, like you don't have to think well, I have to give thousands of dollars.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: You can give.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Small amounts can make a big difference to a good number of people, correct?
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I mean for.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: You guys are running an efficient.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: It's not a.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: A couple bucks is for one kit.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: That's huge.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: I mean that's $8.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: That's huge, I mean that's $8.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: If you think about it, $8 a day for one I mean $8 a month covers one month for one person.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing If we could get you know 100 donors to just donate $8 a month.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: That's 100 women who have a recurring guaranteed menstrual period covered for them.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: I mean that's huge, that's recurring, it's consistent.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: I mean I say the word consistent a hundred times a day because you have to be consistent in the care, intention and dignity of the people we serve.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: And I feel like asking for $8 a month is not a big ask of anyone.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: No, that's, and we are such a grassroots community-driven organization that any donor is a major donor to us.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: We're appreciative of all gifts.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Time, treasure, talent, If you want to put a name to it.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Any and all gifts.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, emmy, as we wrap up this session, it's been great having you as a guest and, like I mentioned, thanks for having me.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, send me all the stuff you want people to know.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: We'll put it in the description.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: But again, the website is puritykitsncorg.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Right, Did I get that right?
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, is there anything you wanted to just leave the audience with before we wrap up?
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: I just want to thank you all for taking the time to listen to me talk about period kids, north Carolina and my experience in the Navy All very vulnerable and real and I'm excited that we're going places and I'm honored to be able to share this hour with you all.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: And Dr Roberts and MISNS, your acronym, I think I got it.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: It gets me, it's a mouthful.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: It's not, it's not easy, like PKNC.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: No, no, but we, just, we, just, we just call it missions.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Missions Okay, that makes it easier.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: We just, we just call it missions, missions, okay, that makes it easier.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, calling it missions.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: And uh, I'm just, I'm humbled and honored and I appreciate you guys well, thanks for all the important work you're doing.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of uh, women and girls out there that are much better off emotionally and physically health-wise, um, because I also want to acknowledge, you know, those that don't identify as a woman, those who aren't sure what you know or who they are or how they feel, but they've been straight.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: We support all, all people I mean, and I think sometimes that doesn't get addressed, and I felt like this was a great time to address that all, all menstruation matters and that anybody who has a period we serve and we respect and we want to honor and I want to recognize on this call as well.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I appreciate that.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: That's very important.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks for adding that.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Absolutely Okay, folks.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: That's.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Thanks again, emmy, and we'll wrap it up for the day.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: But I hope that you share this podcast, share the information with others you might know, and we're happy to support Emmy's work and Period Kids NC.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: We'll have their information on our website and also you can look at them, and I believe you're already on our partners page.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Fact, I know you are so, um, you can get, you can go to our partner page, find out more.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Um, but until next time, uh, we'll see you later.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Have a great weekend, weekend, whatever, it is during the week that you're listening to this thank you bye.