GALESBURG, Ill. — Empty shelves at stores have been a common sight in recent years. First, it was toilet paper, then baby formula. The latest supply chain problem is a shortage of tampons.
The cost of the raw goods used to make tampons, such as cotton and plastic, is rising and manufacturers have fewer employees.
Additionally, NielsenIQ data shows that the average price for tampons rose 9.8% this year through May 28. The price for a package of pads also rose 8.3%.
However, despite tampons being harder to find in the stores, that lack of accessibility is a reality many lower-income women face daily.
"It becomes harder and harder for people that are already struggling," said LeeAnn Porter, the executive director of the nonprofit Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank. "It's just another burden kind of put on them, kind of an unspoken tax on being poor. These things that you have to do that other people just kind of take for granted."
Porter founded Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank in Galesburg in 2015 to help provide families with diapers. In 2018, the nonprofit added period supplies. It partners with 27 agencies across 11 western-central Illinois counties.
Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank puts together period kits with a variety of pads, liners and tampons, along with information about how to use the products and toxic shock syndrome.
When she first started the kits, Porter said they were making less than 100 a month, but that number has only grown. Prior to the pandemic, she said they were averaging 150-200 a month. Today, it's about 400.
"If you don't have a pad or a tampon, you can't go to work, you can't go to school, you just can't be active in life," Porter said. "We don't think anybody should miss out on those things due to lack of something so basic. We want to make sure that they have it, that they're not stressing about it. We have enough things to worry about. We don't need to worry about a pad or a tampon."
Two in five people who are menstruating can't afford period products, Porter said. It's what is referred to as period poverty.
"Period poverty is basically just not being able to afford an adequate amount of supplies to get you through your period," she said. "It's having to use tampons longer, having to use pads longer than you would normally use them because you don't have enough funds to buy more."
Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank relies on supply drives, donations and grants to get the period products. Right now, Porter said they're relying more heavily on community donations or funds to be able to purchase tampons because manufacturers aren't able to donate them.
"We do have a substitute if we were to not have enough tampons, so we at least get somebody something," she said. "We just kind of think that everybody should get to use the product that they see is best for them and their life and their body."
Loving Bottoms Diaper Bank is starting a new partnership with the Galesburg library this month and will provide the library with period kits to keep in the bathrooms. Porter is hoping to expand this partnership to more libraries across the 11 counties in the future.