A student who cannot get a pad goes home. Then she misses the next day too, and the quiz she had studied for.

Virginia law requires public middle and high schools to stock free menstrual products. The law sends no money to pay for them. So the supply comes out of a nurse's budget, or a counselor's own pocket, or it does not come at all. The closets filled in August are usually empty by October.

That is when schools call BRAWS. We deliver pads, tampons, new bras and new underwear to Title I schools across Northern Virginia, in quantities that let a counselor hand a student what she needs and then say nothing more about it.

About 2 in 5 people who menstruate have struggled to afford supplies (Alliance for Period Supplies). Pads and tampons cannot be bought with SNAP or WIC, so for a family already choosing between groceries and the power bill, they are the thing that gets cut.

Period supplies are school supplies. Your gift buys them.

Period Supplies ARE School Supplies