A multicolored vehicle makes monthly deliveries of period products to the Generous Hands facility in Vicksburg. This van, which proclaims “support menstruators” on its left side, is a sign of a relatively new partnership between Generous Hands and Care Collective of Southwest Michigan, a nonprofit organization that provides diapers and period products to those who struggle to afford these essential supplies.
Anne Liggett, treasurer of Generous Hands, said the collaboration with Care Collective started last July when she heard of the work it was doing in the Kalamazoo area. After a short interview process, the two nonprofits became partners and have been working together ever since. According to J. Ludeker, operations director at Care Collective, the partnership with Generous Hands is the first relationship it has outside the Kalamazoo area.
“It (is) a really great way for us to serve people further from the city center, with an organization that really understands the work of basic needs,” said Ludeker.
Generous Hands had already been providing these essential supplies to its clients for several years prior to joining forces with Care Collective. It began in 2020 with two donations totaling $725 from Meijer on Shaver Road to help provide period products to families and to the main offices in the five school buildings in the Vicksburg Community Schools district. Liggett said the continuity of supplying these products was “pretty spotty” at first, having to rely on donations to be able to purchase them, but due to partnering with Care Collective, Generous Hands is now better able to keep up with the needs of its families. Currently, The Bridge church in Vicksburg helps with these demands by supplying period products to Sunset Lake Elementary, Indian Lake Elementary and Tobey Elementary.
Sarah Koestler, founder and executive director of Care Collective of Southwest Michigan said the organization, established in 2022, was developed from a shared idea of Kalamazoo community folks who identified a gap with the diapers being supplied in the community and the need for these products. There was also a gap with period products, she said.
“We wanted to build something the community needed and address the needs of product insecurity,” Koestler added.
Care Collective is able to help its partners provide period products to its clients through several financial avenues. Ludeker explained that as a nonprofit organization it is funded through grants from the Kalamazoo Foundation, the Stryker Johnston Foundation and the United Way, among others. And as a member of the National Diaper Bank Network (NDBN), there is additional access to large product donations from manufacturers – Huggies diapers and Kotex pads, he said. Kimberly Clark is the NDBN’s family sponsor and the parent company of Kotex, which coordinates a lot of in-kind donations for member banks. Additionally, fundraisers and individual donations add to the amount of products Care Collective is able to distribute to its partners. With only four employees, it has distributed 87,548 period products and 244,483 diapers so far this year.
For both Generous Hands and Care Collective, having the capacity to supply tampons, pads, and panty liners to their clients and help with the significant monthly costs has become as necessary as ensuring they have food on the table. Ludeker illustrated the cost of period products per person to be approximately $15-20 a month. For example: In one family, if a child is in diapers and there are one or two that need period products, that could amount to $200 a month just for personal care items, he said. This alliance has helped alleviate those costs for the recipients of both organizations.
The relationship between Care Collective and Generous Hands is likely to continue as both organizations see the value in working with the other.
“A big part of the motivator working with Generous Hands (is) that we were presented with an organization that was doing a really good job, really cared, and was reaching a population that we couldn’t reach otherwise. It’s a testament to Generous Hands experience…you all have a great idea of how to keep things stocked, how to distribute them to people in an efficient, caring manner. Those are all of the ideal things to have in a partnership,” said Ludeker.
Liggett also noted that something else has developed from the organizations working together: relaxing the stigma of talking about menstruation and the need for these products.
“One of the things that I think is good in all of this, with Care Collective…is opening the conversation. Why is it a secret? Menstruation happens. It’s part of life,” she said.
