By Amiya Seetharam

Stephanie Speaks has lived in the Richmond District most of her life. Whether she is volunteering with The Richmond Neighborhood Center (TRNC) at the local food pantry, biking through the neighborhood or helping at a school event, those around her describe a steady presence – generous, funny and quick to show up for her community.

“She is supportive with a capital S,” said Mei Ling Ong, a fellow volunteer at the RNC. “She has a big, warm, generous and caring heart.”

Speaks said she began volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic, when “people needed help.”

“I also realized that I just really like food,” she added with a laugh. “Food pantries seemed like a way to put my time to good use.”

Ong praised Speaks’s reliability and collaborative spirit.

“If we have a day when we are really stuck with no one to help us, we text her an SOS and she’ll be there in five minutes,” Ong said. “When you see someone work so hard, you want to give back the same way that she is.”

Speaks’s family has been connected to the Richmond since the 1950s, when her grandparents opened the Sweeterie, a candy and ice cream shop which sat on California Street near 21st Avenue from 1929 until into the 1950s and ’60s. Now, the site is home to Bazaar Cafe.

“That was their retirement job,” Speaks said. Her grandfather, unable to find work as an engineer, took a job at a gas station before opening the store with his wife. Speaks recalled the display window full of toys that children would save up their pennies to buy.

Her grandparents were among the first Chinese families to move west of Van Ness Avenue.

“People weren’t receptive,” she recalled. “The entire block signed a petition to keep them out.”

Now, generations later, raising her own children in the Richmond, Speaks acknowledged that city life is not always easy.

“It is challenging being in San Francisco,” she said. “Some parents feel like the City sort of forces you out. There are a lot of things you see in the City that you don’t see in the suburbs. But actually, if you get involved in your neighborhood, I think you get more comfortable with it.”

When her children attended Alamo Elementary School and Presidio Middle School, Speaks and her husband Joe were active volunteers.

She helped organize a literacy week at Alamo, which included a storyteller, Read Across America event and book exchange. Her husband, meanwhile, ran the annual school talent show where students had three minutes on stage to share a skill – anything from hula hooping to poetry.

“It was really valuable to give kids three minutes of their own,” Speaks said.

Speaks said raising children in the City meant finding practical ways to juggle errands, volunteering and family time. For Speaks, that meant biking became a daily habit.

She started riding when her children were young. Navigating the bus system felt exhausting and time consuming. With a trailer hitched to her bike and her kids in tow, riding became the most efficient way to get around the neighborhood.

Speaks said she appreciates how biking slows things down and offers a different way of seeing the neighborhood.

“(My kids) are connected to the neighborhood in a big way because they are familiar with everything,” she said. “For them, the ocean to the panhandle has been available.”

Whether she is biking through the neighborhood, running school events or helping at the pantry, Speaks is known for showing up for the community where she has such a generational legacy.

“It’s OK if (others) don’t notice (your work), or if you’re under the radar,” Speaks said. “Somebody needs to do it.”

Friends describe her not just as a volunteer, but as a steady force who leads by example.

“She gives a lot to the community and believes in giving a lot to the community,” Ong said. “She’s a leader.”

To learn more about volunteer opportunities at The Richmond Neighborhood Center, visit richmondsf.org.