Jessica Micallef
Supermarket giant Woolworths and national charity Share the Dignity are calling on Sunbury and Macedon Ranges residents to help end period poverty as part of the first Share the Dignity Drive of the year.
Throughout March, Woolworths will donate five cents from each sanitary item sale to support the installation and maintenance of Dignity vending machines, to make sanitary items more accessible for women across the country.
Shoppers are also encouraged to donate sanitary items via pink donation boxes at the front of each Woolworths store.
Woolworths has been in partnership with Share the Dignity since 2019, and has raised more than $1.8 million for the charity, with more than a quarter of a million sanitary items also being donated by customers.
Woolworths operations manager Wally Ghanem said the support of shoppers went a long way to getting Australian women out of period poverty.
“Together as a community, we can make a difference so we are encouraging all our Sunbury and Macedon Ranges customers to get involved in the March Dignity Drive,” he said.
In 2020, Dignity Drive donations were impacted by COVID-19 and restricted access to vending machines resulted in a growing number of women experience period poverty, according to Share the Dignity.
Share the Dignity founder Rochelle Courtenay said more than half of their vending machines were closed in the height of the pandemic.
“We will work to ensure women have access to the products they need,” she said.
