Birmingham’s parks have been described as “gems” by the US Secretary of the Interior. But they’re exceptionally difficult to access if you don’t have a car. Public transit is limited, and it’s not easy to bike or walk around Birmingham. In fact, many people in Birmingham hardly bike or walk at all.

In winter 2017, our team got a question: “Have you ever looked at how people can walk to and from grocery stores from senior centers? Maybe Safe Routes to Grocery Stores?” We were thrilled. We had been working for the past year to refine a concept called Safe Routes to Healthy Food, which works to overcome the barriers to walking, biking, and taking public transportation to places where people get healthy foods. This was a chance to dive in to see how the challenges and solutions we’d been exploring played out in a real neighborhood. Asian Services in Action, Inc.