If you are or have been someone who menstruates or the parent of an infant, then you know how expensive the essential supplies to care for natural bodily functions can be — and how important it is to have them when you need them. Now imagine not being able to afford those supplies.
That’s why Care Collective of Southwest Michigan is helping folks throughout Kalamazoo County who are challenged to pay for those supplies. The organization provided hundreds of thousands of free diapers and period products in 2024.
The work is urgent, but the vibe was chill at the organization’s Eastside office and warehouse when this reporter visited. The team had recently hosted the organization’s first fundraising event, OvaryActing, and was preparing to volunteer later that day with the Kalamazoo Talking Is Teaching party at Milham Park.
“We partner with Talking Is Teaching year ’round, and we include their info in all our kits, sharing the idea that diaper time is talk time, reminding parents that they are their children’s first teacher,” says Care Collective Founder and Executive Director Sarah Koestler.
Operations Director J Ludeker reports that the OvaryActing party had 70 participants and raised more than $8,000.
In his position, Ludeker is responsible for outreach, communications, and donor and volunteer relationships. “I don’t menstruate, and I don’t have kids, but I’ve educated myself so I can educate others,” he says.
Koestler adds, “He’s also contributing to the stigma busting and eliminating shame.”
Meeting needs
Care Collective distributes products via 25 to 30 partnerships with nonprofits and grassroots organizations, including Communities In Schools, OutFront Kalamazoo, Cares Sexual Wellness Services, El Concilio, the Eastside and Douglass community centers, Rootead, and Fire Arts Collaborative.
“We prioritize partnering with smaller organizations, and specifically BIPOC or LGBTQ-led organizations. They are doing frontline work to reach folks who have higher rates of diaper need and period poverty,” says Care Collective Program Manager Jordan Taylor.
While there’s no way to be sure how many clients the organization has served, it distributed 573,000 diapers and 139,000 period products in 2024. Both numbers are on track to grow this year.
The need for diapers is great in Kalamazoo, says Koestler. “About half the families with young kids in Kalamazoo do not earn a household income enough to meet their needs,” she says.
Care Collective’s product distribution is assisted by nearly 400 volunteers who pack period and diaper kits in the warehouse. Ludeker notes there is “a job for everybody, regardless of ability or age.”
“We recently had an event welcoming families with kids to bundle diapers. The only accommodation we had to make was to lower the table height for the kids,” he says.
Koestler adds, “There was something wonderful about seeing kids wearing diapers and (other kids) processing diapers at the same time.”
Koestler puts together a period supply kit. © Encore Publications / Brian K. Powers
A majority of the organization’s supplies come from steeply discounted bulk buying and community product drives, which also raise awareness about the needs and the services. The organization has benefited from drives by the Junior League of Kalamazoo, the Kalamazoo Promise, students from Kalamazoo Central High School and Wellspring/Cori Terry and Dancers, among others.
With an annual budget of $600,000 funded by grants and donations, Care Collective is a member of the National Diaper Bank Network and the Alliance for Period Supplies, which makes the local organization eligible for donations from product manufacturers.
“We just received our first delivery — 60,000 pads from U by Kotex earlier this month,” says Ludeker. “Our landlords, Consort Media, not only loaned us some storage space, but also a forklift and staff volunteers to move the product.”
Given that girls in the U.S. are starting their periods earlier and earlier — some as young as age 9 — the need for period products is widening. Via Communities In Schools, period products are available in all of the Kalamazoo public schools where CIS has a site coordinator.
“This year we worked with CIS to provide period kits for health class presentations to fifth graders, to show them what will be available when they go to middle school next year,” says Taylor. “We will continue to work to streamline age-appropriate accessibility in the schools.”
Kits ready for distribution. © Encore Publications / Brian K. Powers
Launching and growing
The idea of establishing Care Collective of Southwest Michigan was sparked by conversations that began three years ago, according to Koestler.
“A group of us started talking in 2022,” she says. “We had different levels of involvement in nonprofits, caregiving and specifically diapers and basic needs distribution. We saw that existing diaper programs were meeting only a small percentage of the need. Our board is primarily made up of those folks still.
“Our first board meeting was in a tattoo studio, which absolutely captures our scrappy vibe. We started working out of J’s garage, and we got our first funding in early 2023 from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Other funders followed, and we were able to start piloting with three diaper partners in March 2023. We added period product distribution that fall.”
Along the way, Care Collective was able to hire staff and purchase a 20-foot cargo van, and twice it outgrew its space. The organization’s grant funding continues to grow, and it recently secured multi-year funding from the Stryker Johnston Foundation.
“That stability makes a huge difference. It allows us to try things and make changes and get feedback, and have things not go perfectly in a way that we learn from and that benefits everyone in the long run,” says Koestler, for whom that long run is always front and center.
The team expects to move to a larger space when their two-year lease runs out in 2026.
What else is on the horizon?
“We hope to take our volunteer opportunities on the road,” says Ludeker. “We want to bring supplies out to groups who can bundle kits at their site and at their convenience. This would primarily be period products because of the smaller size.”
Koestler adds to the list of what’s on the horizon. “Later this year we will be partnering with companies to sell them discounted period supplies with which to stock their bathrooms for staff, employees and public-facing restrooms,” she says. “Other big dreams are to expand outside Kalamazoo County, finding partner agencies who are reaching migrant families, Black families, and queer families.”
