‘Free Store’ in Whitewater Provides Resources for Migrants: The Community Space

Rewind to around 20 years ago in Whitewater Wis., when a janitor at a grade school, Art Hughes, noticed students coming to school without coats in the middle of winter. Out of the kindness of his heart, he would bring coats to school and give them out to those kids.

“The more he gave, the more he saw,” Kay Robers, co-founder and site manager of The Community Space, said.

His operation began to expand farther than just coats over the next five years as he moved from managing out of his car to his garage to the United Church of Christ Sunday school room. This is where he met Robers. Then, for the next 15, years they utilized the entire upstairs of the church. They provided things like clothing, houseware and linens to anyone who needed them free of charge.

In 2019, Robers and her co-founder Kristine Zaballos decided to do something audacious; they opened The Community Space. At the time, they were unaware of the migrant community they would later come to greatly support and serve. This community began to form in Whitewater around two years ago. Unfortunately, Hughes passed in 2016 before The Community Space opened, but his kindness laid the foundation for this organization.

The Community Space is completely run by volunteers and donations. They provide everything from a food pantry to clothing of all kinds, an adult and children’s library, electronics, sporting goods, movies, DVDs, holiday décor, furniture, art, kitchenware, records and so much more. They do all this free of cost with no residency or income requirements. The building they use is 24,000 square feet. The owner charges them only $10 a month in rent plus utilities, which uses up most of their money per month.

The shopping-style food pantry serves between 250 and 300 families a week. People who come in get a shopping basket and go through the different sections, all labeled in English and Spanish, with how many items each family can have from each section. It starts with a freezer filled with meats and pizzas and a refrigerator with dairy products. Then there are three shelving units filled with things like cereal, canned soup, crackers, pasta and cake mixes. Next, there is a bread and produce section. There is enough bread donated so that people may take as much as they need.

The thrift-store-feel clothing segment of The Community Space has everything someone may need from pants, t-shirts, jackets, shoes, children’s clothing, sweatshirts and accessories. Each section is labeled in English and Spanish.

Robers first noticed the growth of the migrant community in Whitewater about two years ago. She noticed that when migrants first arrive in Whitewater now, they are finding The Community Space much faster than they used to. One way to tell whether people are new to town is if they are looking for pillows and blankets.

“They seem to be hearing information and letting people know what is available,” Robers said.

Out of the couple dozen volunteers at The Community Space, most are retired people who are all aware of the growth of the migrant community in Whitewater. One volunteer, Joe Zimmerman, decided to volunteer because he was looking for something to keep him busy during the winter.

“I’m sure the city is feeling it somehow,” Zimmerman said. “I don’t personally feel it because it doesn’t really affect me at all.”

But, why Whitewater?

When people come across the border, in order for them to be transported somewhere, they have to provide an address of a place where they can stay. Most migrants come from warm climates like Venezuela, Mexico and Nicaragua. The small town of Whitewater Wis. home to many college students with freezing winters would not be most people’s first choice in all of the United States. So, the first of the migrants that came here looking for jobs on egg or dairy farms spread the word to people from their native communities and allowed them to stay with them, according to Robers. Though the migrant population in Whitewater is growing, it is not obvious to the naked eye.

“If you didn’t know they were here, you wouldn’t know they are here,” Robers said

Robers takes pride in the fact that migrants feel safe at The Community Space and find it to be an extremely helpful resource. When a program piloted by Jorge Islas at the local high school ran out of space to teach English second language classes, The Community Space offered to host the classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Now, as a part of the class, students will go around The Community Space to learn first-hand how to point out different colors, clothing and food items in English.

The Community Space recently celebrated its fifth-year anniversary at the end of January. Islas spoke at the ceremony with two of his students, who spoke in English, thanking them for allowing them to teach and take English second language classes there. One woman who spoke was a mother of five children whose husband works on a dairy farm. She was emotional while making her speech and said that the best part of learning English is that she can now make doctor’s appointments for her family.

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This project was created through a journalism class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies Department. This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club.