JUBILEE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

The Community Hygiene Bank has served the Brockport area and its surrounding rural communities since March 2017. It is a nonprofit, volunteer, community- based outreach ministry that offers basic hygiene products to individuals and families in need. We also serve local students (K-college), elders, rural farm workers, and veterans with specific programs targeted for these groups. The Community Hygiene Bank intentionally seeks out the most hidden and vulnerable in our community for our services. We do this by offering an in-person distribution of hygiene products to the public four times a year, mobile delivery service for those with no transportation or who are unable to drive, and emergency boxes throughout the year.

Access to basic hygiene is the first line of defense against disease, making this an essential public health intervention. Many in our community experience "hygiene poverty." Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients are not allowed, by federal policy, to purchase personal care items, paper products, or cleaning products with their benefits, making these items unaffordable to most. Similarly, elders, individuals with disabilities, and others on fixed limited incomes already struggle and as a result experience hygiene poverty. The continual rising cost of prices on all necessities means that working class poor as well as some in the middle class are not able to afford basic hygiene products. This scenario creates even more vulnerability to disease. The Community Hygiene Bank brings awareness to this largely unknown health concern and helps to alleviate hygiene poverty through our availability of hygiene products for our community in need.