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Kelly Warner, right, and Haley Ballenger, left, take donated clothes to their cars in August 2023. The pair co-founded the Fort Worth Community Collaborative in 2022. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
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Fort Worth resident Kelly Warner would describe her latest trip to the Funky Town Fridge at Westside Presbyterian Church in one word: serendipitous. 

She was filling up the community fridge with grocery items when she met Ellis Maxwell, a member of the church’s faith and secular group that helps operate a store that provides food, clothing and other items to people in need cost-free. 

At the time, the store needed more volunteers and supplies. Warner was also in search of a location that Fort Worth Community Collaborative, her nonprofit organization offering free clothes to residents, could call home. 

“We’re kind of at the same place, at the same time, and they have this thing that they want to keep doing, but they didn’t have anybody to man it,” Warner said. “So I was like, ‘My organization would love to bridge that gap and help you provide that service for our community.’”

Fort Worth Community Collaborative announced in August that it would partner with Westside Presbyterian Church to establish a no-cost clothing closet. The initiative aims to provide essential clothing resources to individuals and families in need throughout the Fort Worth area.

Warner co-founded the community collaborative with friend Haley Ballenger in 2022 to bring people free new or gently used clothing while reducing textile waste in Tarrant County. Warner said the nonprofit has helped 917 people and distributed almost 6,000 pounds of clothing since it started tracking pounds of clothing in April 2023. 

Haley Ballenger, Fort Worth Community Collaborative co-founder and Fort Worth Weird Moms Club founder, picks up donated clothes in August 2023. Ballenger and Kelly Warner, Fort Worth Community Collaborative co-founder, became good friends through the Weird Moms Club before starting their nonprofit in 2022. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)

The new space at Westside Presbyterian Church, located at 8700 Chapin Road in the Western Hills neighborhood, will store clothes on-site, offer designated shopping hours multiple times a month and allow people to schedule appointments if they are in immediate need of clothing. 

The church has operated a free store for the past two years. Once per quarter, the church accepts and redistributes clothes, furniture, toys and kitchen items to congregants and the general public. 

Partnering with Fort Worth Community Collaborative in creating the clothing closet came at a time where the church was experiencing limited resources and volunteers to run the store, said Chad Presley, pastor of the church. The new collaboration will help each partner achieve their mission. 

“Being open to people who are on the same journey or have the same vision and goals is the kind of thing that makes this sort of collaboration possible,” Presley said. 

Maxwell is not Christian, but has actively participated in the congregation’s learning community, a group of both church members and nonmembers of the church that creates projects like the free store. 

“When I hear Chad talk about what Jesus taught, and the way that he and people in this community are called to be in the example of Jesus, I say, ‘Well, that may not be the path that I took to get here, but I agree with the vision completely,’” Maxwell said. 

Since its inception, Fort Worth Community Collaborative has brought cost-free clothing to pop-up shops hosted at community centers or to spaces owned by other nonprofits in the county. 

Those partnerships have allowed the nonprofit to offer services to a variety of neighborhoods, Warner said, but it takes a lot of hands to make it happen. 

A single clothing event requires renting a U-Haul truck, acquiring people to load the truck with clothes, sorting the clothes at the pop-up shop, working the event and reloading the leftover inventory to take it back to the storage unit. 

Warner said the pop-up shopping events will continue to occur on a quarterly basis to reach people who might not have a way to travel to the church. 

Kelly Warner loads donated clothes into her car Aug. 16, 2023, at the Benbrook Library drop-off location, 1065 Mercedes St. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)

She envisions the clothing closet being a boutique-like shopping space where people can select from a range of new and gently used items like professional attire, everyday wear and seasonal clothing based on their style. 

Warner said she hopes the clothing closet model will give shoppers a chance to make choices in their clothing and boost their confidence. 

“Just because it’s not something that you’re going into a store and buying off the rack doesn’t mean that it can’t make you feel amazing about yourself,” Warner said. “I think that’s an amazing gift to give somebody else.” 

A grand opening date has not been set yet, but Warner said the groups are hoping to open the closet’s doors in October. 

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or @marissaygreene. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.