Northwest organization receives additional support to provide free feminine hygiene products

The Northwest Foundation recently received funding from the Gladys Rickard Trust to further support We Gotchya, an organization at Northwest Missouri State University seeking to provide free feminine hygiene products in all academic building restrooms on campus.

The Gladys Richard Trust provided $4,475 to cover the cost of purchasing nine additional feminine hygiene dispensers for campus buildings. Earlier this fall, the Northwest Student Senate’s approval of $22,000 in funding to the We Gotchya endowment provided the University with the ability to unlock feminine hygiene boxes in academic buildings, making the products within them free to access.

“We’re pretty excited by the overwhelming amount of support for this project,” Jacquie Lamer, the founder of We Gotchya and a senior instructor of mass media, said. “Our initial focus was to provide free products just in academic buildings, but this additional funding helps us provide the products in all campus non-residential buildings, so it’s significant. And the beautiful thing is the endowment structure that is set up to cover the cost of tampons and pads forever.”

The goal of We Gotchya is to provide resources to women who need them and engage in a broader discussion about menstruation, the luxury tax on the items and the taboo that exists about periods in society.

Founded in 2018 by a group of Northwest faculty and staff, the organization placed baskets in women’s restrooms in academic buildings to provide free feminine products for women who may need them while encouraging women who have extra products to leave them. When baskets could no longer be maintained due to COVID-19 sanitation guidelines, We Gotchya built a trust that can sustain the program into the future.

Northwest marketing research students in fall 2019 found that 41 percent of Northwest students missed class due to period-related issues. With the increased movement toward cashless commerce among college-aged students, students are less likely to carry coins to use feminine hygiene dispensers. Now, the cost of all the feminine hygiene dispensers in non-residential building bathrooms is covered.

With the support of donations to the endowment, We Gotchya can keep feminine hygiene boxes open. For more information about We Gotchya, visit wegotchya.org.