Go With The Flo is an initiative created to provide students of Kent City schools with menstruation supplies and support through Kent State. The project will be collecting donations throughout the month of March and holding the Gather and Give Back: Go With The Flo event Tuesday.

The Kent State Women’s Center is a collaborator on the project and said it will rely on donations of menstrual hygiene products from the community such as pads, tampons of all sizes, cosmetics bags and underwear.

Isobel Day, the 2022-2023 Newman Civic Fellow, chose to research period poverty for her fellowship and chose to create her project about it. Her plan was to create a project that would reach many people and influence many lives.

“We researched period poverty, and found that tens of millions of students don’t have access to menstrual products,” Day said. “Millions of students are also choosing between menstrual products and food every month. […] We decided that that is something in Kent we can definitely address and so that’s why we wanted to pilot Go With The Flo because we are providing menstrual products to local elementary, middle and high schools.”

Day explained what products the Go With The Flo project would be collecting and how they would be put together for those in need.

“Along with collecting menstrual products, we’re also collecting cosmetic bags,” Day said. “We’re going to fill them with menstrual products and that’s going to be our kind of vehicle for giving them to the students. So that’s how we’re addressing destigmatization in that. It’s kind of more fun and more normal to have a cute little bag and keep your menstrual products in there.”

When creating Go With The Flo, Day had an end goal in mind that focused on helping as many people who menstruate as possible. She also mentioned how one of her biggest goals was spreading the word and bringing as much awareness to period poverty as she could.

“Many people don’t consider period poverty an issue or don’t know that it’s an issue,” Day said. “We’re lucky here at Kent State that a lot of our population now on campus has access to period products through the Period Project, and the outflow dispensers in the bathrooms, but unfortunately, that’s not a cross-community effort.”

Day explained who might benefit from the project.

“It doesn’t just affect women. It affects anyone who has the capability of menstruating,” she said. “There’s no reason why people in such a first-world country America or any country should have to choose between menstrual products and food because, at the end of the day, both are a necessity.”

Along with sending supplies to the Kent City schools, Day has plans to expand her initiative past the educational system into communities. Day’s plan for Go With The Flo is to expand into the districts around Kent State, including the historic south end of Kent, which is a known low-income neighborhood. Comparing her goal to projects like Living Libraries and Little Boxes of Kindness, Day talked about how people could go to boxes and receive the menstrual products needed.

Day said she is determined to make sure that all involved learn about the reality of period poverty.

“Period poverty isn’t an isolated incident [and] affects every single country in the world,” Day said. “It affects people in our neighborhood and beyond. This isn’t something that you can just kind of look past. […] We can make a difference in people’s lives who may be having to choose between menstrual products and food. Access to period products shouldn’t be a luxury.”

The Gather and Give Back: Go With The Flo event will be March 14 from 4:30-6:00 p.m. at the Williamson House. Volunteers will help pack kits and decorate bags.

Lex Ogilvie is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].