10-05-2025
PeriodPalooza event combating teen hygienic poverty comes to Grand Junction
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) – Period poverty. According to experts, it's a term riddled with social stigma, used to describe an inability for women and teens who menstruate to afford safe hygienic products.
Tomorrow from 9am-5pm at the Holiday Inn Grand Junction, the Justice Necessary non-profit is throwing an event in the hopes of fighting teen hygienic poverty with the help of the Western Slope.
A 2024 study showed fifty-three percent of menstruating Colorado women reported suffering from period poverty, a ten percent increase in just two years. Enter PeriodPalooza, an event inviting volunteers to assemble kits of hygienic products for Colorado teens in need.
Justice Necessary founder and president, Diane Cushman Neal, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and came to Colorado during the COVID-19 pandemic for life saving care. She says seeing her new community affected by heightened food insecurity inspired the cause.
Diane recalls, 'I started seeing all the food lines and I knew that if school kids didn't have access to lunches, they wouldn't have access to breakfast. So I called my local pantry, and I said, I want to help children make sure they have both meals during this time. And that's when I found out, they said, really, we don't need that as much as we need, for example, period products. We're lucky to have six pads or six tampons for one menstruator.'
Since then, Diane's organization has reportedly donated over five million period products statewide. Justice Necessary also partnered recently with congress and school groups to pass legislation providing menstrual products at no expense to students. But Diane says, their work is far from over.
'The General Assembly did award some money to the state to provide for this, but the money was never going to be enough. So this is where Justice Necessary stepped in… Whether you can give a dollar, you can give an hour, either or all the above is always appreciated because it takes all of us to bring this change about…'
Justice Necessary tells WesternSlopeNow, this year, they have set a game-changing goal: to pack and distribute 1 million period products to students in need across Colorado. For more information on how to volunteer for the PeriodPalooza event at the Holiday Inn Grand Junction, visit their website
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