SAN ANTONIO – On a street as busy as West Martin, there’s not much time to look around the neighborhood. That’s why Olivia Orona and her team at Periodpalooza chose the color red for their “period pantry.”
“We had a lot of inspiration from food pantries and book pantries,” Orona said. “Our biggest thing is getting people to help us hit the ground and to let everybody know that we’re here.”
Located outside of Chiflada’s Cocktail Bar on the West Side is a brand new “period pantry.” It’s a cabinet in the fencing that stores free period products, like menstrual pads and tampons. Periodpalooza, a group in San Antonio dedicated to pushing back on period poverty, created the idea and launched the first pantry this month.
As the event director of the group, Orona said breaking barriers of accessibility when it comes to period products is her top priority.
“There’s a lot of poverty here,” Orona said. “People see it not as their problem. You have to think about the cost of a box. Some people just can’t afford that every month.”
But since its opening, Orona said people have been showing up and helping support the movement.
“We’ve been checking once a week, and every time we come, there’s new products in there,” Orona said. “People showed up with donations, and we didn’t even ask them to. We didn’t even ask them to. They just knew it was a community.”
With the season of giving, Jorge Medina, the CEO of the San Antonio Diaper Bank, said the need for sanitary essentials has hit a new peak.
“The need has been exacerbated,” Medina said. “We’ve seen an uptick in the number of items being requested.”
Medina said they’re always accepting donations.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re meeting the demand,” Medina said. “We really do need a lot of help and support with donations of diapers and period supplies.”