Help a Girl Out drive sees 137% increase in donations

In what has become an annual drive to impact the lives of woman and girls in Berks County, this year’s grassroots Help a Girl Out feminine product and diaper drive realized a 137% increase in donations to help address period poverty.

Conducted in February, the Help a Girl Out drive this year collected 47,134 units of products for distribution to several nonprofit organizations in Berks County. By comparison, 19,928 units were collected in 2023.

This was the third year for the Help a Girl Out initiative, which was started in 2022 by Suzanne Cody, director of business development at Muhlenberg Greene Architects, Wyomissing. Cody said the grassroots initiative annual drive was started when she learned “that women and girls were hindered by a lack of access to feminine products” — a fact she said deeply troubled her.

“They faced obstacles in attending school, earning wages, and maintaining their dignity,” Cody wrote in a letter to the community at the end of this year’s initiative.

In an article on the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Policy Lab website, period poverty is defined as the “inadequate access to menstrual hygiene tools and education, including but not limited to sanitary products, washing facilities and waste management.”

Items donated during the monthlong drive included pads, tampons, baby diapers, wipes, period underwear, menstrual cups and adult diapers.

The items were distributed to Opportunity House, Children’s Home of Reading, Safe Berks and the LGBT Center of Greater Reading.

Muhlenberg Greene and Be Mine Boutique in West Reading collaborated with Berks Women in Motion — a Berks-based networking group for professional women — for the 2024 drive. Attendees at a kickoff event Feb. 1 event heard from the nonprofits, heard about what period poverty is and how it impacts Berks, Cody said in an emailed response to questions.

At that event, attendees signed up for a collection box and took materials to support their collection of items.

Cody attributed this year’s increase in participation to “word of mouth, more dropoff locations, email blasts and social media” helped to spread the word, as did several speaking engagements where Cody focused on menstrual equity.

“People really care about this issue, and I have been fortunate enough to meet other women who are community connectors that have helped me get the word out, introduced me to other people and organizations and gave me opportunities to bring visibility to period poverty,” she said, adding that the American Businesswomen’s Association Berks Chapter, Berks Women in Motion, and the GRCA Women2Women group are “pivotal partnerships for this growth.”

Cody said that once all the donations were dropped off at a central location in March, the items were counted and divided according to needs and populations.