Fighting period poverty and stigma: The Feminine Project initiative gaining momentum in Appomattox

In the summer of 2020, a group of about eight people — mostly women, which was the goal — got together to brainstorm a mission that could benefit the community using Wolfbane’s platform.

“During the shutdown, during the pandemic, we all felt a desperate sense of loss, I think,” said Ashley Sandman, co-founder of The Feminine Project and vice president of Wolfbane Production’s board of directors. “Myself and Tab Robertson, who’s the president of the board of Wolfbane, we decided to get together and we’re like, ‘Let’s pull together some strong women.’ We needed energy.”

The conversation that first meeting eventually turned to the women commiserating and sharing stories of experiences with their menstrual cycle. During the course of conversation, it quickly became apparent this natural function which affects a significant portion of the population would be a perfect thing to focus the group’s efforts on.

Menstruation, while a normal part of life for so many, is nevertheless surrounded by a certain social stigma, and “period poverty” affects countless people who lack access to necessary products.

As a social worker whose job includes identifying community needs and figuring out ways to meet them, Sandman was a natural fit to lead in The Feminine Project.

“When we were talking about our periods and different things, like women do, and complaining about the access to products, one thing that we found that we all had in common was that no matter what our upbringing and our socioeconomic status was, we’d all experienced a time where we didn’t have what we needed,” Sandman said. “We felt very strongly that those supplies should be accessible to everybody.”

Gabrielle Mirabella, development director of Wolfbane Productions, highlighted the mission’s importance with some statistics.

“In 2021, one-third of our population in the U.S. had to choose between going to work or school and having their period, or having to stay home. And that’s just in the United States,” she said. “What I loved about it [The Feminine Project] initially was how simple this is, but how vital this is, that you’re literally just there to collect period products and give them right back to the community. It’s very powerful. Period poverty is such a real thing in our country, especially in Appomattox.”

Thus began the mission to ensure people in the community had access to whatever period products they could use.

Sandman highlighted the importance of language choices and “use” versus “need.” No one requiring period products should feel ashamed to take them, or feel they do not “need” them as much as someone else might, she said. There are no parameters surrounding access to the products stocked by The Feminine Project.

The Feminine Project is not only for people who menstruate: a major component of the initiative aims to bring cisgender men into the conversation as well.

Theater and the arts are prime platforms for inclusivity and education, lending themselves perfectly to an initiative such as The Feminine Project, Mirabella noted.

One day, to illustrate a point and further the educational, inclusive mission of The Feminine Project, Sandman and Mirabella handed pads to the men of Wolfbane and told them to put them on and wear them for a bit. All of the men were supportive of the experiment, they said, if a bit nervous and befuddled.

One participant in this challenge was an engineer, Sandman and Mirabella recalled.

“He had to, like, analyze what he was looking at, and it was very funny. He was fascinated with the wings,” Mirabella said. She described others examining pad wrappers “like a map.”

Sandman said her husband, who regularly buys period products for his wife and daughters and is well acquainted with the cycle, finally stepped in to help his fellow men learn to use pads.

“He’s really part of the catalyst for this, because I recognized quickly how fortunate I was to have a man who could talk about it and be comfortable with it,” Sandman said.

The Feminine Project is developing a QR code people can scan that will link to instructions on how to use tampons and pads, Sandman and Mirabella said. As highlighted by the experiment with the men of Wolfbane, not everyone knows how to use these products.

“I think one thing we do make the mistake of, as a society, is we assume people know things,” Sandman said. “There’s a lack of education, because sometimes the generations teaching our daughters don’t know how to verbalize how to use a tampon. That might be very uncomfortable for some people, so we want to have that information available.”

Educational materials, such as videos, are developed for Wolfbane Productions’ Patreon. These resources are available there to subscribers.

Monetary donations can be made online at wolfbane.org for anyone wishing to contribute toward stocking period supplies. Donations of physical products or money also can be made at Wolfbane shows, or by coming to the offices during business hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, Mirabella added.

“We’re just trying to let everyone know, ‘Anytime you’re coming to Wolfbane, bring a box of tampons,’” she said.

A donation box will be set up at each Wolfbane show, Sandman and Mirabella said, and products will be available in all Wolfbane restrooms.

“I want to say, it’s not just women that have periods,” Mirabella said, inclusive of transgender, nonbinary and intersex individuals, or those in other such populations. “And that’s part of the language. It’s there when you need them.”

Keeping with inclusivity and stigma-breaking, Wolfbane Production’s co-founder and artistic director Dustin Williams will introduce and discuss The Feminine Project from the stage prior to some of the shows, setting an example for normalization and letting audiences know how they can donate, or where they can find period products on site, Sandman and Mirabella said.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations about bringing men in. The idea of Dustin coming up and talking about period products is so inspiring to me,” Sandman said.

Already, The Feminine Project is having effects by providing a much-needed service through period product availability and breaking down discomfort about speaking openly about menstruation.

This discomfort is, in large part, a generational phenomenon, Sandman and Mirabella noted. For many, talking about periods was taboo — and that is part of the issue contributing to lack of education or preparedness in younger girls. However, there have been some promising indicators of changing that.

An example Sandman shared was the time she was invited to a local church to talk about The Feminine Project.

“It was really interesting, because you could tell there was some discomfort, the generational discomfort of, ‘We’re not used to talking about periods in front of people.’ By the end of the meeting, they were sharing their stories of, ‘When I first started, I didn’t know anything,’” she said.

That church group had collected donations for The Feminine Project, and Sandman said after that meeting, they offered to collect more.

“That’s what I love about those next generations of women,” Mirabella said. “I feel like, with my generation, there’s so much unlearning of shame, unlearning having to be embarrassed to ask. Now it’s just like, ‘Nope, this is what we’re doing.’”

Although there are not exact numbers available to measure the initiative’s success, Sandman said every time she stocks a place like the little free pantry in Appomattox, the period products are “gone immediately.”

With her daughter now in the world of periods, Sandman and her daughter — who is the youngest member of The Feminine Project’s core group — stock the fifth grade bathroom at Appomattox’s elementary school. The Appomattox County Department of Social Services, Victim Witness department and the little free pantry also are stocked by The Feminine Project.

The Feminine Project has set up at events such as Hill City Pride.

Using sample bags from the beauty product company Ipsy — fairly small in size, but perfect for packaging several tampons and pads of varying absorbencies and convenient to stock — The Feminine Project puts together bundles of products for easy, organized access.

Going forward, Sandman and Mirabella said they hope to work more with other local nonprofits through collaborations such as hosting trivia nights and other fundraisers prior to showtimes, and working together to collect more period products. Already, they said, some regional organizations that have caught on to the initiative have inquired about getting involved, and one nonprofit sponsored a trivia night earlier this year that doubled as a donation collection and social event.

“What’s also important about all of this is that we’re creating relationships that are useful, and helpful, and healing to people,” Sandman said.