Group Members: Far Sung (Sarah), Leanna Mballow, Edgard Jimenez, Mauri Martinez, Alondra Lopez, Summer Murphy.
Many college students at Green River struggle with access to basic hygiene products due to financial constraints. Balancing tuition, rent, and other living expenses often means that essentials like soap, toothpaste, deodorant, and sanitary products become secondary priorities. This lack of access can lead to health concerns, decreased self-confidence, and added stress, making it more difficult for students to focus on their academic and personal growth. Through discussions and research, we recognized that hygiene insecurity is a significant yet often overlooked challenge among students. Without these basic necessities, individuals may face not only physical health issues but also emotional and social barriers that impact their overall well-being.
The issue arises primarily from the high cost of living and limited financial aid options that do not always account for hygiene products. Many assistance programs prioritize food security, while hygiene needs are often neglected. As a result, students who are already managing tight budgets may struggle to afford these essential items. Poor hygiene can also contribute to increased stress, lower self-esteem, and a lack of confidence in social and professional settings. Recognizing the impact of this issue, we aimed to create a sustainable and accessible solution that would directly benefit students at our college.
For our Small Wins project, we set up hygiene donation boxes around campus and partnered with the Green River Benefits Hub to support students in need. To ensure its success and sustainability, we placed the boxes in high-traffic areas with clear signage, promoted the initiative through word of mouth and posters, and regularly monitored and emptied the boxes to maintain engagement. By tracking donations and communicating with the Benefits Hub, we prioritized collecting essential items like toothpaste, soap, and menstrual products. We also kept the project cost-effective and easy to manage, ensuring that future student groups could continue the initiative. This effort not only provided crucial hygiene supplies to students but also fostered a sense of community and shared responsibility on campus.
To address this challenge, we organized a campus-wide hygiene drive to collect essential items for students in need. We partnered with the Benefits Hub at Green River, an organization dedicated to supporting students with financial hardships, ensuring that donations would be distributed effectively. Each group member contributed by creating and placing donation boxes around the campus, making it easy for students, faculty, and staff to participate. The response was encouraging, and we successfully gathered a variety of hygiene products. Once the drive concluded, all collected items were donated to the Benefits Hub, allowing them to be distributed to students facing hygiene insecurity. This initiative not only provided immediate relief to those in need but also raised awareness about the ongoing challenges students face in maintaining their personal hygiene. By working together as a campus community, we created a supportive environment that emphasized the importance of health, dignity, and well-being for all students at Green River.
Our Small Wins project aimed to address hygiene insecurity among students by setting up donation boxes across campus, with all collected items donated to the Green River Benefits Hub. While successful in gathering donations and raising awareness, we faced challenges in visibility, engagement, and logistics. Many students overlooked the boxes due to busy schedules, highlighting the need for stronger promotion through digital outreach like social media or campus emails. Tracking donations and maintaining the boxes also required more strategic placement and regular monitoring. Additionally, coordinating with the Benefits Hub taught us the importance of early planning for smoother donation delivery. Overall, the project was impactful, but in the future, we would enhance outreach efforts and establish a structured system for managing and distributing donations more effectively.
Our group successfully completed group project two by effectively overcoming challenges and improvising when our initial idea proved unfeasible. Through consistent communication and collaboration, we developed and executed a hygiene drive, which involved creating donation boxes and efficiently gathering donations. Our team’s success was driven by our strong commitment to working together, meeting regularly, and ensuring all tasks were completed on time. This project positively impacted the Green River community by supporting Benefits Hub and providing essential hygiene products to individuals in need.
Rothwell, J. Dan. In Mixed Company: Communicating in Small Groups and Teams. 10th ed., Oxford University Press, 2019.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “About Hygiene.” CDC, February 2025, www.cdc.gov/hygiene/about/index.html.
Benefits Hub. Green River College, www.greenriver.edu/students/academics/benefits-hub/.