Mass NOW at the 2025 U.S. Conference on Basic Needs and Poverty

From October 21st-23rd, the Mass NOW team went to Las Vegas for the Alliance for Period Supplies and National Diaper Bank Network 2025 U.S. Conference on Basic Needs and Poverty.

Kathy and Kyla from the Mass NOW Team presented in the Menstrual Equity Research Session on Mass NOW’s 2024 research on school nurses.

The 2024 survey of school nurses reached 187 nurses who shared the state of product access in their schools. The main themes of the data were around product access and those who are most affected by period poverty. The majority (94%) of nurses shared that their schools do not have a formal policy requiring products, but an overwhelming majority (92%) still provided menstrual products in school nurses offices. Additionally, a statistically significant relationship was found showing that as the percentage of low income households in the schools increased, the likelihood of nurses reporting students missing full days of school due to a lack of menstrual product access also increased. You can read more about the 2024 school nurse research on our website.

It was wonderful to not only discuss the research, but also learn from the many other incredible speakers and attendees. To just name a few, it was great to hear from Ahana Raghavan from Woolfs Torn Pages in California, Kara Cowell and Mary Kenny from the Minnesota Menstrual Equity Coalition, Jess Strait from Days for Girls International and Sydney (Ramon) Ibanez Ibanez from PERIOD.

Thank you to the research team at Mass NOW for their work on the school nurses study, including Charlotte Powley, Stephanie Tuttle, Kenzie Blackwell, Sasha Goodfriend, Ann Linehan, and Susan Vrooman.