8 JUNE 18, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Ridgewood teenager donates feminine
hygiene products to six food pantries
Jacob Altamirano and Jamie Longo at the Hungry Monk on June 13. Courtesy of Connie Altamirano
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Jamie Longo, a Ridgewood resident
and Brooklyn Technical High
School sophomore, wants to help
girls and women in the community
who can’t aff ord feminine hygiene
products.
Longo and her mother, community
activist Connie Altamirano, decided
to undertake this new initiative after
researching period poverty — defined
as a lack of access to sanitary
products, toilets, menstrual hygiene
education, hand washing facilities,
and, or, waste management by the
American Medical Women’s Association
— and how it impacts thousands
of women and girls in the United
States.
“As we learned more about it, it
upset me how many people have to
choose between buying these products
or other necessities,” Longo
said. “I just feel for them, because I
know how much it can suck. It must
really be hard when you can’t support
yourself. I connected with that
the most.”
In an effort to address the issue
locally, the 15-year-old thought
it would be best to help six food
pantries — four in Queens and two
in Brooklyn — distribute feminine
hygiene products with their food
items when she realized they didn’t
have such products to distribute.
One of those food pantries was the
Hungry Monk, located in the Covenant
Lutheran Church at 68-59 60th
Lane. Longo and her little brother
Jacob Altamirano, who previously
partnered with the Hungry Monk,
distributed more than 225 bags
with feminine hygiene products to
the organization for its weekly food
distribution on Saturday, June 13.
“At the Hungry Monk, the line was
down the block but it went by pretty
fast,” Longo said. “It was pretty
cool because a lot of people were
thankful.”
Councilman Robert Holden visited
the pantry and recognized Longo for
her community service.
“Jamie has clearly learned from her
mom the value of community service,
and she’s setting a great example
for young people who want to help
their neighbors!” Holden wrote in a
Facebook post.
Through her research, Longo
discovered PERIOD, an organization
founded in 2014 that has addressed
more than 1 million periods
through product distribution and
registered over 700 PERIOD chapters
in all 50 US states and in over
40 countries.
According to a 2019 report by
PERIOD and Thinx Inc., “one-in-five
teens have struggled to afford period
products or have not been able
to purchase them at all, and one-infour
teens have missed class due the
lack of access to menstrual hygiene
products.”
Longo became a Chapter leader
for PERIOD after reaching out to
PERIOD for some guidance, which
gives her access to more resources.
It took about two weeks of fundraising,
$750 of which came from
Longo’s own pocket, $1,200 from
a GoFundMe campaign, as well as
product donations from the community
to gather thousands of tampons,
pads, panty liners, and menstrual
cups.
Longo also wants to help bring
awareness to the “pink tax,” or
gender-based pricing, which refers
to the extra amount of money women
often times pay for certain products
or services.
“When I go to my local CVS store,
I noticed prices are different, but
people aren’t usually comparing the
prices, they’re just buying what they
can,” Longo said.
Longo is in good company when it
comes to bringing awareness to menstrual
needs in Queens — two other
Astoria teens created Femstrate, successfully
calling on the Department
of Education to offer free period
products at meal hubs.
Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, Gov.
Andrew Cuomo launched a campaign
to eliminate the pink tax in New York
State this year.
Last year, Congresswoman Grace
Meng, who represents parts of
Ridgewood, introduced the Menstrual
Equity for All Act, the first
comprehensive bill to address the
challenges of obtaining feminine hygiene
products in the United States.
The bill would make menstrual
products free for women in prison,
allow states to use federal funds to
supply products to girls in school,
and requiere that these products be
covered by Medicaid.
Altamirano is proud of her children
for knowing the importance of
giving back to their community.
“This cause is very dear to our
hearts, as a mother who has experienced
having to make a choice
between buying diapers and formula
for an infant son or feminine
menstrual products for myself,” Altamirano
said. “I’m proud of my two
wonderful children that are giving
back in a pandemic. They don’t want
to just give back now, they want to
continue doing this. We should all
continue helping each other, we
should never stop.”
Longo wants to make this a recurring
project, and is still accepting
product donations and monetary
donations via GoFundMe. For those
who want to donate products, Longo
and Altamirano can be reached via
email at conniealt1@gmail.com.
“Now more than ever, our community
has to work together to supply
each other with what we need,”
Longo said. “We have to help each
other to make sure most of us are
OK.”
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