By: Sandra C. Melvin, CEO, Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health | September 14, 2026

In Mississippi, a mother should never have to choose between buying diapers and paying the electric bill. A student should never have to miss class because she cannot afford a pad. Yet these choices are a routine and largely hidden part of poverty across our state. Diaper insecurity and period poverty are sometimes dismissed as matters of personal budgeting or convenience. They are neither. Clean diapers and menstrual products are basic health necessities. Without them, babies, mothers and students face preventable health risks, missed opportunities and indignity. The scale of the problem is substantial. The National Diaper Bank Network’s 2026 national study found that 40% of U.S. households with young children in diapers experience diaper insecurity. Its earlier nationally representative 2023 study placed the figure at 47%. Mississippi-specific diaper-need data remain limited, which is itself a policy failure. But there is little reason to believe families in one of the country’s most economically vulnerable states are insulated from this national crisis. Diaper insecurity can mean stretching the time between changes because the next package must last until payday. The National Diaper Bank Network reports that children without an adequate diaper supply are more vulnerable to painful rashes, urinary tract infections and additional medical visits.

The evidence on menstrual-product access is equally troubling. According to the Alliance for Period Supplies, Mississippi is home to 648,422 women and girls between ages 12 and 44, and 152,768 of them live below the federal poverty level. The organization also reports that 86% of Mississippi’s female public-school students in grades seven through 12 attend Title I-eligible schools. Nationally, two in five people who menstruate struggle to purchase period products, and one in three low-income women reports missing work, school or another commitment because she lacked the supplies she needed. Nearly one in four U.S. students struggles to afford period products. This represents students staying home, parents missing work and families improvising with products that were never designed to be placed against sensitive skin. Period poverty creates its own cascade of consequences. A student without a pad or tampon may leave school, avoid participating in class or worry throughout the day about staining her clothes. An employee may miss a shift. A mother may sacrifice her own hygiene needs so that limited household dollars can go toward food, medicine or her children.

Mississippi’s existing assistance systems do important work, but they were not designed to close these gaps. The state’s WIC program provides supplemental food, nutrition guidance and support for pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children under five. It does not function as a comprehensive basic-needs benefit for diapers, menstrual products and other household hygiene supplies.  That is why community-based organizations are indispensable. The Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health, through its Baby Depot program, works to give new and expectant mothers a reliable source of diapers, wipes, baby food, feminine-hygiene products, health resources and community support. Its mission is straightforward: support families with essential baby needs so that mothers and children can thrive during the critical early years of life.  This work reflects a broader truth at the center of the Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health’s mission: health disparities do not begin and end inside a clinic. Health is shaped by whether a household can obtain the basic materials required to remain clean, safe and well. Charitable distribution, however, cannot carry the full weight of a statewide problem. Mississippi needs a coordinated public response.

First, state leaders should establish a recurring appropriation for community organizations that distribute diapers, wipes and menstrual products. Funding should prioritize areas with high poverty rates, limited transportation and few existing distribution sites. Second, Mississippi should provide free menstrual products in public middle and high schools. A bill introduced during the 2025 legislative session proposed making free and adequate menstrual products available to students in public middle and high schools. That objective deserves renewed consideration and durable funding.  Third, the state should remove sales tax from menstrual products. Tax policy should not treat a biologically necessary product as an optional consumer purchase. Fourth, health systems, Medicaid providers, schools and social-service agencies should routinely screen for diaper and menstrual-product insecurity. A simple, respectful question can connect a family with assistance before a shortage becomes a health or attendance crisis. Finally, Mississippi needs better data. State agencies should measure diaper and period-product insecurity by county, race, income and rurality. Policymakers cannot adequately address a problem they do not consistently count.

No infant should remain in a soiled diaper because a parent has run out. No student should lose instructional time because she lacks a pad. No mother should be expected to protect her family’s health without the basic supplies required to do so. Providing diapers and menstrual products is not a giveaway. It is a practical investment in maternal health, infant health, school attendance, workforce participation and human dignity. IAMH’s commitment to healthy mothers, healthy children and stronger families offers Mississippi a clear model: meet people’s essential needs, connect them with trusted support and remove barriers before they become crises. Mississippi can begin by recognizing a simple fact: diapers and period products are necessities, and access to them is a public-health issue.

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The Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health is a Mississippi-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing health disparities through education, advocacy, research, and community partnerships. The organization works to improve health outcomes and advance health equity for underserved populations across Mississippi by developing innovative, community-driven solutions that improve lives one community at a time.