Q&A with Kate: The Impact of Federal Funding Cuts

Founder and Executive Director Kate Sanetra-Butler

Curious about how federal funding cuts have affected Dignity Matters this year? We did a Q&A with Founder & Executive Director Kate Sanetra-Butler to answer your most frequent questions.

How have cuts to federal funding impacted Dignity Matters?

While there’s no federal or state funding available to fight period poverty (all our support comes from private foundations, companies, and individual donors) these cuts have deeply affected our 180+ partners across Massachusetts. We’ve seen organizations lose staff, reduce capacity, and give up storage space to save money. That instability has a ripple effect on us. It hasn’t hurt us financially, but it’s made our operations more complex, and it takes more time and resources to manage it all.

How have cuts to SNAP/Food Stamps impacted Dignity Matters?

You can’t buy menstrual care with SNAP, but it provides families a reliable source of free food – and they can use some of the money they save on pads and tampons. SNAP cuts mean families spend more on food and have less money left for period products. Do they buy food so their family has enough to eat, or buy menstrual care so they can work and support them? There often isn’t enough for both, and more families are seeking help from Dignity Matters than ever.

Despite these challenges, we’ve worked hard to adapt and keep operations running smoothly. Our goal is to ensure every woman we support has uninterrupted access to menstrual care — and with your help, we’ve continued to do just that.