I don’t know why it’s been twenty years since my first fight with a white lady over no, poor people would NOT appreciate menstrual cups over pads/tampons and here I am in another fight with another white lady. If you use a cup, you need ACCESS TO WATER. you ALSO need a place to yank that thing out and put it back in. And when you’re living in your car or on the streets, *neither* of those these are easily accessible.
If people say they want pads, give them pads for heavens sake. Do NOT assume that it just hasn’t occurred to them that they really want a menstrual cup or they haven’t thought their choices fully through. A compromise might be if you have a free store space or something that poor people might be in, stock up on menstrual cups WITH pads and tampons. And let them choose based on their own situation.

Otherwise, if ur a social worker or some person with access to poor people- if any person says they want a pad or tampon, fucking give it to them. Default to pads/tampons. Assume that poor people have found ways to negotiate what most people have (ex: pulling a blanket up over themselves in their car to change a pad.) not that they have time and resources to figure out entirely new thing like emptying/changing a cup in a gas station that manager is already heckling them in because manager knows they’re not going to buy anything.