Period poverty is a topic that isn't talked about often, but it's happening in our backyards. That's why The Organic Project is taking an all new approach to women's menstrual health. Cheddar News' Hena Doba caught up with The Organic Project to learn more about their mission, their impact, and what's in store for the future.

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How The Organic Project is Making Period Products More Accessible

period poverty is a topic that isn't talked about often, but it's something that's happening in our own backyards and conversations surrounding women's menstrual health aren't always easy to have. That's why the organic project is taking all new approach to women's menstrual health. Yeah. Indeed, in our own anecdote caught up with the co founders of the organic project that to learn more about their mission, their impact that they've had and what's in store for them coming up in the future. Take a look. The organic project, also known as Top is a female founded organic period care company. That's changing the conversation around women's menstrual health. Before Covid, it was one in five women and girls experience some level of period poverty. So that's that's being insecure. What we see is that if you're food insecure your period insecure. So they really go parallel path post Covid. It was one in four, so 25% of the female population here in the United States. So if we truly think what we always always thought about when we heard about period poverty, it was in third world countries, it's happening in our backyard. Danielle and I are co founders and we started Top the organic project 4.5 years ago we talked about us as the three ko's so we are cousins, were co founders and co C. E. O. S. We both left our corporate jobs at the height of our careers to start an organic period care company. Um I know which sounded crazy to our families at the time, but we wanted to make better products for our own daughters and we also knew that our purpose at that time was that we were always meant to advocate for women. Jara Osler is a business development manager for Chase and the business banker for top, She's also a huge advocate for the top mission. Every woman has a story of something that they missed, an opportunity that they missed or a time that they just had to carry the mental load of worrying about um, where they're gonna get their period products in the situation that they weren't prepared for it. That just resonated with me in a way that I thought, I can't believe we're still experiencing this and they are right. Equity should start in the bathroom and girls should not have to miss sports or activities because they don't have access to period products within this new rebranding in this relaunch, you can actually see our boxes, they're unicorns who doesn't love a unicorn, It's about bringing fun into this. This is a taboo conversation. Nobody's wanted to, it's been tired. Um, and this is actually had to do something fun. We had to do something disruptive. Um, and so so beyond the unicorn being our new new mascot who would have thought that a period care company would have a mascot. The top story is all about equity, dignity and breaking down the stigma surrounding menstrual health to achieve this. It's critical to have that network and support system in place, especially as female founders. Chase is really very focused on supporting women and one of those is through our women on the move program and what that is. It's a program that is committed to supporting women with both their personal and their professional needs. That was Roxanne Cook, the Northeast regional director at Chase and another key player in Top's story. The organic project has raised $3.3 million in seed funding, but it was no easy feat. My joke is that there's no fun in fundraising and last year in 2021 only 2% of venture capital went to women and we lived it with funding, support and the desire to drive real change for generations to come. That top is making history everywhere. There's toilet paper, there should be period products, there will be a day when our daughters never remember a time when there weren't period products, everywhere, there's toilet paper and that's the history that we are making and it is truly all possible because of this relationship with Jpmorgan Chase, Jpmorgan Chase is committed to supporting women and women owned businesses at all stages of the business journey to learn more, visit Jpmorgan Chase dot com slash W O T MM