Community Hygiene Truck

March 23, 2021

The Community Hygiene Truck is a collaboration between Broad Street Ministry, Bloody Btches, and Pheed Philly to address the inequities in public health exacerbated by the pandemic. Through generous support from the Starbucks Foundation, Life Science Cares, Harmony BioScience, Penn Medicine, and Bio Passage, these three organizations have partnered to build a truck that will distribute custom personal care packages and provide access to portable sinks to increase opportunities to practice personal hygiene for Philadelphians experiencing poverty.

In the early stages of the pandemic, when the CDC was encouraging prevention of the spread of COVID-19 through hand washing, access to sinks became limited for Philadelphians experiencing homelessness. While everyone was encouraged to shelter in place, those within the unsheltered community watched as many of their resources shuttered. Broad Street Ministry led an effort to place portable hand washing stations across the city and, as the pandemic persisted, realized a more permanent solution than these rentals would need to be found.

This truck will build on a personal care program already established at Broad Street Ministry that distributes clean underwear, socks, soap and additional toiletries to more than 5,000 individuals each year. Bloody Btches’ effort to combat period poverty will expand the truck’s inventory to include a wider variety of menstrual products and will make the truck a resource to folks that may not need access to the full social services offered at Broad Street Ministry’s brick and mortar. Pheed Philly’s current outreach will help to build upon pre-established trust and provide insight to neighborhoods and partners visited by the new mobile unit.

HOW TO HELP:

You can donate online here: https://www.broadstreetministry.org/donate-now/ or make checks out to Broad Street Ministry c/o Development.