How a garden shed has become a lifeline, bringing this Milwaukee neighborhood together

On a vacant lot in the 2600 block of North 34th Street stands a 10-foot-by-10-foot, brightly colored, wooden garden shed.

Adorned with images of civil right activist Fannie Lou Hamer and the Black Panther Party, the shed has become a lifeline for residents in the Metcalfe Park community.

It’s stocked with donated items like diapers, wipes, clothes, hygiene products and health kits — basic but essential items residents need. And from 2 to 4 p.m. every Friday during the summer, residents can get whatever they need free from the Metcalfe Park Community Bridges’ Mutual Aid Shed, at 2620 N. 34th St.

“This is the stuff the community says they need, especially diapers and wipes. But right now, they are expensive,” said Melody McCurtis of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, the organization that operates the shed.

McCurtis works with other local organizations like Milwaukee Diaper Mission to get diapers. Even Metcalfe Park residents donate items they no longer need to recirculate them within the community, McCurtis said.

Between 30 and 75 people go to the shed every Friday. On a recent Friday, Metcalfe Park resident Zemarius Jones, 21, was one of them.

He came for diapers for his 2-year-old daughter while she's going through potty training.

“It’s expensive,” Jones said. “They gave us wipes, too. That’s another benefit.”

He called the shed his backup plan. Jones doesn’t have a car and the few stores in the community close early, forcing him to travel to Pick 'N Save or Walmart to get diapers. Jones said he doesn’t know how much money he would spend on diapers without this resource.

“This is very much needed,” he said. “Pretty good the community stepped up and provide things to help the community.”

Christye Johnson, 46, comes to the shed every week. She picks up diapers for her three godchildren and other household items she can use. Sometimes, she picks up items her neighbor might need.

For a lot of young parents, diapers are a big need, she said.

“If this wasn’t here, a lot of kids would go without diapers," Johnson said.

Dominique Hutchison, 32, swung by the shed to pick up items for her niece and nephew. She picked up a pair of shoes for her niece, diapers for her 5-month-old nephew and a few hygiene products for herself.

The mother of three said the shed is important, not just because it provides things the community needs, but it also gives residents — especially kids — a chance to “be on the block” and meet others in a safe space without fear of violence.

This generation, Hutchison said, doesn’t get a chance to be outside often because of things going on in the streets. But this is an opportunity for them to see people coming together to help each other.

That's one of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges' goals with the shed — to make connections. To do that, McCurtis has hosted events including community paint days, barbecues with a local DJ, and yoga and self-defense classes.

The idea is to bring people outside their homes to connect with neighbors. Those connections spur conversations where residents can be a solution or a resource to one another. The community, McCurtis said, provides the best first responders to any crisis.

“They are the experts. They know the solutions they need. They are the closest to the problem,” McCurtis said. “For us, we are committed to making sure that — as neighbors — we roll up our sleeves together to be there for one another and make sure we have what we need."

Since the shed opened in 2022, the organization’s mutual aid network has served more than 800 families. But the need is greater now because of the rising cost of living.

Supplies are still needed. McCurtis has created a mutual aid and supply wish list on Amazon.

“Everything is high," she said. "Rent is increasing. Gas is high. Food is high and folks’ income is not increasing."

McCurtis will open a second location in early July at the organization’s Black Joy farm, 2819 W. Wright St. A local artist painted the shed with imagery around Black joy, liberation and mutual care.

During the winter, the shed moves its service indoors into the organization’s North Avenue headquarters, where it becomes the Freedom Shop.

Since the pandemic, Metcalf Park Community Bridges has continued to respond to the community's needs through its mutual aid efforts. The shed is a continuation of that.

When stores shuttered and shelter-in-place orders kept residents indoors, McCurtis gathered donated supplies — including food, hygiene kits, cleaning supplies and masks — and distributed them door-to-door. That first year of the pandemic, Community Bridges delivered over 10,000 mutual aid packages.

She said mutual aid is rooted in social justice and addressing residents’ basic needs allows them to be active participants in democracy.

“You can’t talk to anybody about voting if they are figuring out where they are getting diapers from,” McCurtis said. “You can’t talk to people about the housing crisis if they are worrying about how they are going to feed their family.”

The sheds also activate and beautify vacant lots where homes once stood. In addition to its Black Joy farm, the organization turned a vacant lot into a healing space, both of which the organization bought from the city.

Through reclaiming these spaces, McCurtis said residents can create the amenities the community needs instead of having something thrust upon them.

“We are doing community development that is rooted in social justice in a way where our community can not only roll up their sleeves and create the community that they want," McCurtis said, "but actually benefit from any change that is happening."

LaRisa Lynch is a community affairs reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at llynch@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How Milwaukee's Metcalfe Park community comes together at garden shed