Community members are encouraged to donate sanitary items during the Share the Dignity April dignity drive.

Ten collection points are dotted around the area throughout the month.

Share the Dignity volunteer Mel Haverfield said all the sanitary items donated in our area were distributed to charitable organisations in our area.

National charity Share the Dignity organises dignity drives each April and August to collect sanitary items for women and girls in crisis.

Share the Dignity volunteer Kate Fitzgerald said the donated sanitary items remained in our community.

"It is a community-based drive where we are trying to help our locals," she said.

Share the Dignity volunteer and Charles Sturt University student Tahlia Rance said support for the donation drive from students and staff had been positive.

"There has been a lot of community feedback as well," she said.

Share the Dignity distributed more than 400,000 sanitary items in 2018.

The number of Australians experiencing poverty and homelessness is on the rise and it is expected the demand for Share the Dignity's services will be even higher in 2019.

Share the Dignity founder Rochelle Courtenay said the organisation, through its biannual drive, helped in some small way to alleviate the undignified situations thousands of women across the country endured.

"So many women, every month, have to forfeit sanitary products because they cannot afford them," she said.

"Many mothers choose between buying tampons or feeding their children.

"Girls miss out on school simply because families cannot afford to buy the basics of necessities."

Collection points are available at CSU Port Macquarie; Chemist Warehouse Port Central; Chemist Warehouse Bay Street Plaza; Commonwealth Bank Port Macquarie; Commonwealth Bank, Wauchope; Commonwealth Bank, Laurieton; itravel Port Macquarie; Mariner Motel, Laurieton; Mid North Coast Community College; and TAFE NSW Port Macquarie.