Rowan’s Period Movement chapter kicked off its first meeting of the semester with a packaging party Monday night.

Pink, purple, green and orange pads and tampons scattered across the table for students to place in either brown paper bags or plastic Valentine’s Day bags. 

The brown paper bags contained five pads and seven tampons each that will be donated to the Glassboro Food Bank, and the plastic bags contained one pad, one tampon and one Hershey’s Kiss that will be given out to students.

The Period Movement is a non-profit focused on ending period poverty and period stigma through service, education and advocacy, according to their website. Packaging parties are a great way to get period products to women who have trouble affording them. 

“I like what the club is doing because not a lot of people talk enough about the Period Movement, so I really enjoy what this club is trying to do and I really enjoy how everyone is trying to get together and do something good,” Kay’la White, a sophomore psychology major, said.

Twelve students attended the meeting. Some people heard about the movement through Instagram and others heard about it in classes where the club’s e-board members made announcements about it.

Later this month, there will be an educational meeting about sustainable menstrual products, such as the cup and the cloth.

According to Change to Green, a New Zealand-based manufacturer of eco-friendly products, it takes 500 years for regular tampons to decompose in landfills.

“More than 45 billion tampons or sanitary pads are used every year across the globe resulting in 3.2 million kgs of waste,” their website says.

“We really want guys to come too, so they can learn about periods,” Tanvi Koduru, president of the Period Movement and a sophomore entrepreneurship major, said. 

Last semester, Koduru lead the first ever #nationalperiodday rally in New Jersey where they focused on menstrual equity and how people get their products.

The packaging party went quicker than Koduru thought despite having a lot of products available to package.

The event was made possible by Fantasy Gifts, a sex toy and lingerie store located in Marlton and Turnersville, who collected donations.

“Everybody knows somebody that has periods, even if you don’t have one yourself. Everybody knows somebody,” Taylor Adens, vice president of the Period Movement and a junior political science major, said. “The meetings are all inclusive and LGBTQ+ friendly. Everybody is invited to our events.”

Rowan’s chapter of the Period Movement will post future events on Instagram. The next meeting will be held on Monday in Hawthorn Hall room 215 at 6 p.m.

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