Episode 24: Corina Luckenbach and Melanie Granger

Melanie Granger and Corina Luckenbach

Close your eyes for a moment and think of the face of homelessness. What is the face that you see? Is that person male or female, white or black, young or old. Or maybe the person some where in between these choices?

For Corina Luckenbach and Melanie Granger, the faces of homelessness that they saw when they closed their eyes were very much like them: young, female and surrounded by taboos. Out of this space, Corina and Melanie hatched an audacious plan to raise One Million Tampons for Seattle’s homeless women. In the process they have garnered the support and attention of people from around the world and have recast the face of who is homeless in the city’s collective consciousness.

One recent morning, as the breakfast rush trickled away, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Melanie and Corina at West Seattle’s Admiral Bird café to talk about their project. We started our conversation talking about the origins of the One Million Tampons campaign.

To give to the campaign, please find a link to the One Million Tampons Amazon list here.