Girl Pack is a UK-registered volunteer led charity working primarily in Milton Keynes. We support everyone’s period providing emergency period packs and period products to schools and communities across MK and beyond.
It would be easy to say that we aim to end period poverty but that would be an unachievable goal. Many things need to change at a level far higher than we can access, the Government need to acknowledge that period poverty is a problem and that the cost of period products is far too high. Periods are not a luxury they are a fact of life for half the population so the products to deal with this should not be classed as a luxury item.
Our aim is to support everyone to have an affordable period. Our products are placed across the borough for people to access in many different ways, some payable but mostly for free and we will continue to sign up partners to help us distribute period products to anyone who needs them.
Girl Pack was started by Megan and Paige, two teenagers who noticed that their friends were not able to access period products. They were asked for pads on numerous occasions by friends and decided to do something about it. The period pack was born from this decision and is still our main project to date.
Our first partner was Milton Keynes Academy, the girls delivered the first period packs to the school, and it was a huge success.
Period packs are now available in schools, community centres, children’s centres, Parish Council offices, Community Larders and fridges, sports clubs, shops, and cafes and distributed by other charities.
We are proud of the impact we are having across Milton Keynes, supporting everyone’s period no matter what. There are no criteria for accessing our services, this makes it easier for our partners to help the community they support. We help those that can’t afford to buy pads and those that are simply caught short by their periods, something that is especially important to girls starting their first period and those that are experiencing the menopause where things can be very irregular.
Although our name suggests otherwise, we are very proud to support trans men and non-binary people with their periods too.
Girl Pack is volunteer led; this means that everyone who works for us is a volunteer from the managing director down to casual volunteer none of us get paid. This means that our operating costs are very small, and we can focus of spending your donations on our projects.
We have three main projects that are delivered year round.
Project 1 Period Pack. Each period pack contains a full packet of period pads, wipes, knickers and hand sanitiser. They are available in schools, community centres, children’s centres, Parish Council offices, Community Larders and fridges, sports clubs, shops, and cafes and distributed by other charities. This is our main project and to date we have given out nearly 10,000 packs.
Project 2 Pad Baskets. These are a basket of single period products that people can just take one to help themselves there and then. They are available in public toilets in Centre:MK and various pubs in the borough.
Project 3 Affordable Period Products. When we have stock available we sell period products at very affordable prices.
Fundraising is an essential part of our activities, we are not Government funded so in order to do all of the above we have to raise the money. Over the summer months we attend events with our ping pong crazy game. Kids throw balls into cups to win prizes. We also have an information stand and this is where we sell period products. We also apply for grants, our last successful one being form the National Lottery's Community Fund.
