N3B backs Free Flow NM to expand menstrual product access in northern New Mexico

N3B is putting its Los Alamos cleanup dollars behind a problem that can keep students, workers and families out of class and off the job: the lack of menstrual products. Free Flow New Mexico says 1 in 3 low-income menstruators miss work, school or similar activities because they cannot get period supplies, and the nonprofit is expanding its northern New Mexico network with support from N3B.

The effort matters in Los Alamos County because N3B is not a distant donor. It is the legacy cleanup contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the 36-square-mile site in Los Alamos County that sits about 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe. N3B says it commits 5 percent of the award fee it earns over the life of its U.S. Department of Energy cleanup contract to community and workforce-development efforts in Northern New Mexico, and its 2025 community contributions totaled $333,000.

Free Flow New Mexico, founded in 2020, says it has built its work around six programs focused on distribution and education. The nonprofit says it distributes period kits through more than 100 community organizations, offers 24/7 access through Period Pods in Santa Fe and Española, and uses Period Cupboards in trusted community spaces to provide a six-month supply of products. Its other programs include Period Education and Bagging, Community Days, Cupboards and reusable-product distribution.

The organization says the need is especially sharp because there is no federal program that covers menstrual products. EBT, WIC and SNAP do not cover them, leaving many low-income menstruators to stretch budgets or go without. Free Flow NM says its mission is straightforward: period products should be as accessible as toilet paper, and no one should miss school, work or daily life because they lack supplies.

That mission has already scaled. In September 2025, the Santa Fe Community Foundation said Free Flow NM had provided more than 750,000 menstrual products under founder and executive director Laurie Merrill’s leadership, and named the group a 2025 Piñon Award honoree. Kayla Coriz serves as the organization’s Indigenous Program Coordinator and General Distribution Coordinator.

N3B’s 2024 community report specifically noted Free Flow NM as a beneficiary receiving support for a new distribution station, underscoring how the cleanup contractor’s local spending is reaching beyond the laboratory fence line. For northern New Mexico, the result is not abstract charity but a practical change in daily access, one that can determine whether a student stays in class, a worker stays on the clock, or a family keeps moving without interruption.