Cycle Alliance expands access to period supplies

In 2016, New York City passed a first-in-the-country law requiring public schools to provide free menstrual products to students in grades 6 through 12. Two years later, New York state adopted a similar statewide requirement through Public Health Law Section 267.

The measures were meant to both ameliorate “period poverty” — the inability of approximately 20 percent of menstruating people in the state to afford an adequate supply of tampons and pads each month — and contest the cultural and religious stigma that has kept discussion of this biological function under wraps for generations.

The state law does not spell out a dedicated funding stream for schools to purchase the products, leaving districts and schools to manage procurement as part of ongoing operations.

Nonetheless the impact of the change was immediate. According to the Alliance for Period Supplies, within the first few years after the law’s passage, schools saw a 2.4 percent bump in attendance. Moreover, advocates championed the fact that menstrual hygiene products were as available in bathrooms as soap, paper towels, electric hand dryers, and toilet paper. They also saw the shift as a stepping stone to gender equity and a guarantor of better health, arguing that having necessary products on hand lessened the likelihood of toxic shock syndrome from infrequent pad or tampon changes.

Not surprisingly, advocates and school staff expected the provision of goods to be sustained long-term. But the Alliance and other menstrual justice organizations charge that it has not been, at least not in New York City’s 704 middle schools and 534 high schools.

According to a still-pending 2025 lawsuit filed by lawyers at Sullivan and Cromwell, the Department of Education’s lack of compliance has left thousands of low-income students scrambling for enough hygiene products to enable them to attend school when they have their periods.

This is where the Cycle Alliance comes in.

The Cycle Alliance is a mutual-aid initiative sponsored by the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) that was founded by librarian Rakisha Kearns-White. Although Kearns-White is now working at the Kings Bay branch in Sheepshead Bay, in 2018 she was working in the youth wing of the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza.

A random, serendipitous encounter with a young woman who’d bled through her clothes got her thinking — and led to the development of the Cycle Alliance the following year. “That day, I had some extra products in my bag, as well as an extra pair of pants because I’d gone to the gym earlier,” Kearns-White tells the Sunset Post. “I gave the young woman what I had, but kept thinking about this common situation.” The next year, she says, when BPL announced an Incubator Program competition to fund new educational and social enrichment projects, she submitted a proposal to create a library-based initiative to destigmatize menstruation, deconstruct the shame and embarrassment that frequently accompany it, and materially help those experiencing period poverty. The proposal was successful.

“Although we intended to start with conversations to demystify menstruation,” she says, COVID forced the fledgling effort to pivot. In short order, grab-and-go bags were filled by library staff and volunteers and dispensed through “Period Pantries.” In the years since, 15 pantries have been established in branch libraries throughout the borough — including in Sunset Park. Now in its ninth month, the Sunset Pantry (it is actually a large cart filled with supplies) was established after teen librarian Amanda Giglio received a 2025 Incubator grant to set it up and hire a student intern.

“People come in every single day that the library is open to take supplies,” Giglio says. “Each bag contains about two days’ worth of products, including menstrual cups and tampons in different sizes and cuts. We also give out stickers and zines about menstrual health and include how-to information about using the menstrual cups.” During the program’s first six months, she says, more than 500 bags were distributed and several craft workshops and sexual health discussions were organized.

“Teens know that the cart is here and they come in and take what they need, but adults are also welcome to come in and get supplies,” Giglio adds. Still, as a menstrual equity group based in youth libraries, the Cycle Alliance is geared to meeting the needs of teenagers; the group’s website notes that in addition to “destigmatizing and degendering” conversations about menstruation and period poverty, they also teach teens to become advocates.

It’s a significant mission, offering concrete help to low-income communities like Sunset Park. According to a May 2025 count by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, 17.1 percent of the neighborhood’s 117,774 residents are living at or below the federal poverty line ($15,650 for a one-person household; $21,150 for two people; and $32,150 for four), with 20 percent of those under 18 living in poverty.

“Each Cycle Alliance program is tailored to the community it serves,” Kearns-White says. “Some are called Period Pantries, but others are called Care Pantries because they also stock adult diapers, deodorant, lotion, baby diapers, or pull-up pants for toddlers. When communities have a need, they know that the local branch library, whether in Sunset Park, Brownsville, or Sheepshead Bay, will be there for them. They know that we go way beyond books and computers.