We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alyx Carrasquel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alyx below.

Alyx, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

Honestly, I couldn’t be more grateful for my two current bosses. They are so incredibly supportive and always ready to step in to help. Both are so attentive and caring, and they truly prioritize and listen to the employees they supervise. I feel like maybe this should be the bare minimum, but I have never experienced having a boss that is so receptive, understanding, and supportive as EM & PD have been. I am so thankful for them <3

Alyx, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a kid, my mom was always very open about sex ed. It was never taboo, and highly encouraged. She taught me so much about periods and reproductive health. As I got older, I developed a passion for these things as well. I currently work in the Reproductive Justice movement at a Practical Support Abortion Fund. As I have supported with mutual aid efforts in Jacksonville, I saw a need for access to period products in our community. When I put out an ask for donations for period products in June 2023, the amount of support that came was beautiful overwhelming in the best way possible! By July I was able to open the first Jax Period Pantry and shortly after 2 more came. Now we are officially at 7!
JPP is a small mutual aid project to offer people in the community free period products.
Menstrual products should be available AND accessible to anyone who menstruates. Period products are not a luxury, they should be free!

Outdoor locations: The Walrus, Cultivate Jax, Eartha’s Farmers Market, Sulzbacher Village, Finding Balance Counseling
Indoor locations: JASMYN, Rebel Recovery

You can find locations and other resources at linktr.ee/jaxperiodpantry

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I see JPP as a collective effort. I haven’t done this alone. I think the community coming together to support, and other community members being able to access period products when they need them is resilient.
Mutual aid is about helping each other out with the tools and capacity we have to support others – and that is what this is.
I’m so grateful to all the incredible people that have supported in any capacity. Resilience is beautiful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jaxperiodpantry