Local feminine hygiene project expands to stock pantry shelves

A project intended to provide students with feminine hygiene products, is now helping to stock the shelves of a local pantry.

In 2018, Rock and Wrap It Up! a Cedarhurst based anti-poverty think tank, took action when a New York state law was passed requiring schools to provide feminine hygiene products to students, without any funding to do so.

Diane Mandelbaum, vice president of operations at the organization, and her husband, Syd Mandelbaum, founder and CEO of Rock and Wrap It Up, created Hannah’s Project to help solve the problem and get female students the products they need.

“If you don’t have those products you cant participate in anything,” Diane said.

Since, the project has gone on help on a national scale, and looped back to the Five Towns to support locals in need.

Five years before the 2018 mission began, Sharon Osbourne, the wife of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne and a longtime supporter of Rock and Wrap It Up! joined forces with the Mandelbaums to create Mardi Bra, a project with a similar mission to supply women of all ages with adequate feminine hygiene resources.

In both cases, it came down to urging volunteers to buy two packages of care products instead of one, when they shopped for themselves. New York and California schools, along with other community groups got on board.

“If women bought an extra one and donate it to a local shelter, pantry, soup kitchen, any organization distributing goods to people in need, you can help the problem,” Diane said.

Lynbrook High School brought in Hannah’s Project. Student government groups bought and promoted buying additional feminine hygiene products, which were placed in locker rooms, so girls could take the needed items, anonymously, Diane said.

While the project was being implemented in schools, fate came into play, and the local chapter of Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom was looking for a new cause to put their efforts towards.

“We’re just volunteers that get together and talk and try to work together as Muslim and Jewish women to decrease hate and get to know each other and spread the word,” Ellen Tolle, of Cedarhurst, a member of Salaam Shalom and friend of Diane’s said.

Salaam Shalom’s Western Nassau chapter asked for donations of feminine hygiene products along with basic care resources, to be donated to two charities of their choice at the end of the year.

Women of Salaam Shalom shared the project with their mosques and synagogues, where members donated through online purchases, shipped to one sister’s house, to be sorted. Products included deodorant, diapers, lotion, pads, shampoo, soap, tampons, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Since 2018, Salaam Shalom has donated to the S.H.O.P. (Sustenance Hope Opportunities Place) at the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC in Cedarhurst, multiple times, and will again in December.

The S.H.O.P. serves as a pantry and resource center for those in need.

“They’ve been able to provide our clients with to some essentials that unfortunately are not in our budget to purchase, such as like shampoo and conditioner feminine hygiene products, so things that are definitely necessary, for your everyday use and very important items to have,” Rivkah Halpern, program director and social worker for the S.H.O.P. said. “They’ve really come together and collected a large amount of items and help stock our shelves with those items for clients.”

To learn more about Hannah’s Project, or to get involved, visit, RockAndWrapItUp.org/HannahsProject.