HAMILTON COUNTY — The price of everything seems to be going up, including basic everyday necessities like period products, but a Hamilton County woman is making sure young girls and women have what they need.
“My living room frequently looks like this,” Jennifer Harmon said as she looked around at mountains of period products.
Harmon's living room is filled with pads, tampons, underwear, and leggings as she gets ready for the school year.
“There wasn’t a group providing period products in Hamilton County, so I just kind of randomly decided to start one,” Harmon said.
Her mission is to provide a basic necessity to schools and food pantries around Hamilton County through her non-profit, HamCo. Love.
“People need them every month,” Harmon said.
Harmon said period products aren’t often donated to food pantries and you can’t use WIC or Snap benefits to purchase them.
“It is really like, 'Okay, you're on your own to get these and they're expensive and they're getting more expensive,'” Harmon said.
She said not having the proper period products could be dangerous.
“When you don't have them, people will, you know, make do with paper towels or socks or using products longer than recommended which isn't healthy or hygienic,” Harmon said.
Since Harmon started HamCo. Love in January 2021, she said she has received more than 65,000 period products.
“I feel like it has really been a community effort,” Harmon said, “it really has grown like a grassroots kind of thing.”
For more information on getting access to these products or donating period products to HamCo. Love click here.
