Hygiene vending machines helping students in Rutherford County

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Rutherford County Schools (RCS) alumna, who introduced hygiene vending machines into district schools, is looking to add them to more locations around Middle Tennessee to help students in need.

Claressa Ham is the founder and executive director of Archie’s Promise, a nonprofit that recycles donated business and formal clothes to people in need. Through her organization, she has donated vending machines full of hygiene products to several schools in the Murfreesboro area.

“Sometimes, if the young ladies don’t have what they need or a student doesn’t have clean clothes, they may not come to school,” Ham said. “So, we want students to come to school and know they can get what they need and they can visibly see that the items are available to them.”

The products are completely free for students to take and use as they need. The machines include feminine products, deodorants, soap, laundry sheets, wet wipes, comb and brush sets and more. The selection is individualized for each school.

“Most of the product is donated from the community. They kind of hear about what we’re doing, and we have an Amazon Wishlist, and people order and send stuff to us,” Ham said.

According to the Community Resource Center in Nashville, over 300,000 people in Middle Tennessee don’t have access to essential hygiene items like toothpaste, soap, and shampoo. Two in five Middle Tennesseans cannot afford basic hygiene products, they said. There are no government assistance programs that cover basic hygiene essentials.

According to Provision Promise, a nonprofit that helps people in poverty get access to hygiene essentials, 34 percent of teachers said students skipped school due to hygiene issues. For grades nine and higher, that number rises to 42 percent.

Jessica Dooley, the registrar and counseling secretary at Rockvale High School, said students there use the machine every day.

“Kids can be very discreet when they come in asking for products, and it’s been a really big deal for a lot of our students,” she said. “If they feel like we have the basics that they need in order to feel confident in attending class, they’ll come and and they’ll ask us.”

Right now, there are seven schools with machines in the Murfreesboro area. Meanwhile, there are eight schools on the waiting list, and 12 other districts and organizations that have reached out to Ham about getting them.

Ham said each machine costs about $4,000. Funding is the biggest obstacle to getting them inside more schools and programs.

To donate to Archie’s Closet and help fund these machines, you can visit this link.

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