Schools can apply for feminine hygiene product grants starting in September

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Beginning this school year, schools can receive free feminine hygiene products for their students. This is thanks to a bill that was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in April that allocates $200,000 for the products to be put in Title I schools.

“You wouldn’t be here if it was not for a period,” said the sponsor of the legislation Rep. Roland Hollis, D-Jefferson County.

If a box of Tampax cost $7.97 depending on where the products are bought, what type, and what brand, that’s just enough to buy over 25,000 boxes of tampons. But it won’t be the state that’s going to the store.

“Schools were getting these products,” said Hollis. “It was coming out of the principal, counselors, nurses, teachers out of their personal pockets.”

So starting in September, Title I schools can apply for the feminine hygiene product grant program to get tampons and pads for 5th through 12th graders.

“We can’t sweep it under the rug, because it’s life and it happens every day in a woman’s life,” said Hollis.

Through their foundation Women in Training, Twins Brooke and Breanna Bennett provide free period products for girls in the state.

“Brooke and I were named period heroes by Procter and Gamble for donating 15,000 WITKITS to menstruators in Alabama in the past three years,” said Breanna.

They and other “she-heros” helped Rep. Hollis pass this legislation.

“We all have empathy when it comes to people who are in other circumstances and situations than we’re in,” said Breanna.

“We can put pads across Alabama and start helping with other states,” said Brooke.

Schools must apply for this money through the Alabama State Department of Education.

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