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.

Blue and white lights flash behind you. The weee-ooo, weee-ooo of sirens pierce your ears. Your heart races. You slowly pull your car to the shoulder of the road. Sure enough, you receive a ticket for your infraction.

Paying the ticket would take half of your grocery money for the month. Sadly, you cannot pay the exorbitant cost. Then a late fee gets added, then another, and another, until your license gets suspended or even worse, a warrant is issued for unpaid traffic tickets.