This story first appeared in the Richmond Review on May 5, 2024:
One of many remnants of the Russian enclave on San Francisco’s west side serves sit-down meals every weekday.
Olga Medvedko, the executive director of Russian American Community Services (RACS) at 300 Anza St., said her organization has been serving meals to seniors and people with disabilities in San Francisco since 1977.
“We open our doors for nutritional services at 10:15 a.m. and start giving lunches to go about 10:45 a.m.,” Medvedco said. “People start coming and sit down for a lunch program, dine in, and at about noon we’re mostly done.”
Clients don’t have to be Russian-American to take part.
“The Russian speaking community is our target clientele, but we have people who enjoy Russian-style cuisine, and we try to be very friendly and hospitable,” she said. “We have staff coming from different places – the majority are bilingual. Some of them Ukrainian, some from Uzbekistan, Belarus, Serbia. We have Spanish-speaking staff too. It’s like a San Francisco mixture.”
But RACS provides more than just a bite to eat. It also uses the lunchtime to preserve ethnic traditions from the old country.
On Fridays, for example, the menu features fish due to the custom of the Orthodox Church to abjure meat that day.
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John Ferrannini 