Good People is a bi-monthly column highlighting McGill students doing community-oriented work on and around campus. Because it’s important to celebrate good people doing good things.
Menstrual health products should be accessible to everyone who needs them. Period.
Since 2017, the SSMU Menstrual Health Project has been working towards this very mission of accessibility by supplying over 160 washrooms on McGill campus with free menstrual health products. SSMU members pay $2.40 in fees each semester to fund the service, which aims to promote sustainability menstrual equity, and reduce period stigma. Notably, the SSMU Menstrual Health Project does not use gendered language when describing periods in its aim to foster a comprehensive understanding of menstruation that includes trans, non-binary and/or 2SLGBTQ+ students.
The Daily spoke with Momoka Takami, U3 McGill student majoring in International Development Studies and Commissioner of the Menstrual Health Project. We talked about menstrual equity, sustainable hygiene products, and making invisible work visible.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Enid for the McGill Daily (MD): How did you get involved in the Menstrual Health Project?
Momoka Takamo (MT): I had an eye on the Menstrual Health Project since I started McGill in 2023, but then I knew it was a demanding job because it has a time commitment of 10 hours per week. I knew I had to commit to this role if I were to do it. So in January, I saw there was an opening for Menstrual Health Product Coordinator and I thought I was ready so I decided to give it a try.
MD: Can you tell me about your current role as Commissioner? What kind of work do you do on a daily basis?
MT: The role of commissioner really varies. Unlike other student-run clubs, we are a SSMU service, which means there’s one commissioner and multiple coordinators. Since the coordinator’s primary job is to restock bathrooms and they’re pretty occupied with it, I am responsible for everything else. In short: HR, social media, inventory management, and event planning or monthly pickups as well. So yeah, the role is really everything you can think of. For other clubs, they have VP Media, VP Internal, VP External, but I’m just Commissioner, so my role consists of everything combined.
MD: How would you describe the SSMU Menstrual Health Project in a few sentences?
MT: We are part of the student society, so every undergraduate student member pays $2.40 for our service fee, along with other student services fees and tuition. We combine all the $2.40s from each person to buy disposable and reusable menstrual health products to be placed on campus. There are 160 bathrooms on campus, including residences, that we restock. The project is run by five Coordinators, so it is a physically demanding job, but we go to every single bathroom. As for reusable products, we have an event called “monthly pick-up,” which involves us showing up on campus and talking with students and providing products to them. We have reusable underwear, period underwear, reusable pads, and reusable cups, according to students’ needs.
MD: If a student feels skeptical about your organization, perhaps they don’t use menstrual health products themselves, how would you argue that your work is important?
MT: That’s an interesting question. We have many students who come to our pick-up because there was a line or they heard about us somewhere on campus. And they say, ‘I don’t really use it.’ So we usually say, “Oh, if you get a product from us, it’s free because you already paid for it. So you might as well take advantage of the service. The underwear or any reusable products usually cost more than $40 to $50 if you buy it personally, but if you try one from us, it’s free.” So it reduces the barrier to try a new product.
MT: We usually don’t have that much time to convince people at the pick-up. But another approach could be that it’s a sustainable product because it’s reusable, and each unit of underwear should last between five to ten years. So that’s an approach that we can incorporate.
MD: Do you have a specific memory of a moment when you realized the impact of the work you’re doing?
MT: At monthly pick-ups, some students tell us how much they love the project, and how they support us, which is very huge inspiration to continue doing our work. Another one was during the fee renewal that we did in Winter 2025. It was a very tough one to pass, because the SSMU renewal fee campaign in general had a very low vote average – it wasn’t really reaching students. We had to physically table on campus and give out flyers to students to let them know that there was a fee renewal going on. While doing that, I met many students who just passed by, and said ‘oh, no, thank you,’ because they didn’t want to get involved in it. But there were also many students who said, ‘oh, I love you guys, I’ll vote, I hope it passes.’ So that experience really communicated to me that there are students who are constantly supporting us.
MD: The theme of this column is “good people doing good things.” In the context of your work withthe Menstrual Health Project, what does being a “good person” mean to you?
MT: Wow. Good person…well, I’m always someone who wants to help people. That was my goal since I was a kid. As an extracurricular or volunteer community involvement activity on campus, being part of SSMU Menstrual Health enables me to support students with free menstrual products. When we did a survey to students, there were about 180 responses, and many of them said if it weren’t for the Menstrual Health Project, they wouldn’t have thought about using reusable products. Once they figured out about us and they got products from us, it just, like, changed everything. They love the reusable products. So, whenever I see those comments or even interact with students, I know that through my role I’m helping students on campus. I don’t think our work is as visible as it should be., but I think we are a group of students who have similar mindsets about, like, staying behind the scenes but doing small things on campus, small things to help people. So, yeah, for us, being a good person is not necessarily being someone in the front seat, but someone who just secretly supports you to make your day better.
The SSMU Menstrual Health Project’s next pick-up will take place on November 12 between 1:30 and 4:30 PM at the Redpath-McLennan library. Students can follow @ssmumenstrualhealth on Instagram for more information.
If you know good people doing good things who you would like to see featured in this column, email news@mcgilldaily.com.