Bama Health Foods and Nourish Grocer serves the community Five Points West/Ensley Heights communities. (Photo by Forrest Terrell )
Bama Health Foods has provided dietary supplements and nutritional services to the Five Points West community and Ensley Heights for more than 50 years. In 2018, retailer and health coach Jacquie Fasekas became the store’s newest owner, continuing its legacy while expanding its mission.
That expansion took a major step forward Dec. 6 with the opening of Nourish Grocer, just next door. The new concept offers an expanded inventory of organic, local and seasonal produce alongside herbs, probiotics and healthy snacks, with robust options for customers with dietary restrictions.
While there are other grocery stores in walking distance of Nourish, they lack truly health-focused options; fruits and vegetables alone do not constitute a healthy diet.
“It seems a little hard to imagine for people that are in the health space,” Fasekas said, “that people don’t have access to all of this basic stuff.”
Residents of the area have had to travel six miles away, which is about a 30-minute bus ride, to the Midtown Publix on 20th Street or 16 miles away, which is about a 30-minute car ride, to the nearest Sprouts, in Hoover, to find basic health staples such as steel-cut oats, chia seeds, plant-based milk, coconut water, even Greek yogurt.
Roughly 70% of Birmingham residents live in a ‘food desert’— low-income residential areas with limited access to affordable, nutritious fresh food at a store within a mile. The city’s food access challenges are likely to worsen as SNAP benefits are reduced and federal funding for food banks declines.
That’s a concern for Councilor Sonja Smith, who pointed to the scarcity of grocery stores for District 8 constituents. “Grocery stores are few and far between in our community,” she said, “so having a space that’s very intentional about offering healthy, prepared foods and fresh produce is an invaluable asset.”
Nourish is situated on Bessemer Road a mile southwest of the Birmingham CrossPlex and two miles southeast of Miles College. It’s an extension of Bama Health Foods, formerly known as Health Foods West.
Sharing a Vision for Health Living
Nourish owner Jacquie Fasekas, center, stands in the store with high school intern Asi Gray and employee Ash Pyant. (Photo by Forrest Terrell)
Nourish Grocer not only sells healthy foods, it shares a vision for healthy living. Food access isn’t just about the affordability and availability of healthy foods, staff say, it includes access to education about healthy foods. Though Nourish is not a full grocery store, focus on clean, ready-to-eat staples and meal replacements — which have proven especially popular — is intentional. Fasekas describes it as a “yes store” — a place where every product is curated to support shoppers’ wellness needs. “Everything in here is yes,” she said.
Fasekas spends much of her time at the front of the store talking with customers and helping them identify what best suits their health needs. Nutrition classes, food demonstrations and educational programming about hypertension, diabetes and heart disease — which Smith pointed out are major chronic issues for the constituents of District 8, particularly in the Black community — are key to how the grocer sells goods.
Fasekas’ goal is to make healthy choices easier and to challenge the myth that eating well is necessarily expensive, to encourage customers to see food as an affordable investment in their health. Food, Fasekas argues, is not just nourishment; food is medicine.
Asi Gray, a high school student and intern with UAB’s Health Science Academy working at Nourish through Birmingham Promise, sees the store as a vital community health resource. She notes that access to healthy foods and wellness products can empower people to take control of their health — particularly those hesitant or unable to seek traditional medical care. Even as a self-described picky eater, she easily finds food she enjoys and has not met a shopper who could not find something they liked.
Ash Pyant, who has worked at Nourish for four years, says It has introduced her to an entirely new way of thinking about food as preventive care and expanded her cooking habits; she made squash soup and looks forward to experimenting with kohlrabi.
Miles College student Antonio Smith, who works for Nourish and is a vegan, said buying groceries used to mean multiple trips to distant stores for him. (Photo by Forrest Terrell)
Antonio Smith, a vegan and music education student at Miles College who has worked at Nourish for more than a year, credits the store with expanding his understanding of health and nutrition. He emphasized the importance of affordable, nearby access to vegan and healthy options, something that once required multiple trips to distant stores. For him, Nourish is a place to explore food, support the community and take healthier habits back to his family. He says it has been gratifying to see regulars come, healthier, happier every visit.
Community members shopping at Nourish recently shared a deep sense of ownership of the store. “It’s like coming home to my fridge,” said one woman who has shopped there for more than 40 years.
