Tatyana Bistrevsky
Tatyana Bistrevsky, a Ukrainian woman with a curly, dark brown shag and a wide smile, expresses her desire to help her people as exuberantly as she displays her Slavic fashion sense. Today she wears a raspberry-colored sweater with a matching fur collar over a paisley-printed, raspberry-colored dress.
Bistrevsky, a program coordinator for Washington State University’s Spokane County Cooperative Extension, churns out a monthly Russian newsletter/magazine filled with health advice, nutrition tips, recipes and event coverage. It’s designed to not only introduce Russian-speaking immigrants to American foods, but also steer them to a healthier diet that can help reduce their high rate of diabetes.
It derives from Bistrevsky’s passion for the financially strapped Russian-speaking community, not a desire to make money.
“This is more community service,” she says. “This is more into people’s hearts.”
After Bistrevsky immigrated to Tacoma 16 years ago, a woman from the cooperative extension service came to her home to teach her to cook American food and even accompanied her to the grocery store to introduce her to local ingredients.
Now Bistrevsky returns the favor, teaching Slavic people to follow the U.S. food pyramid, to reduce fat and increase their intake of fruits and vegetables. She woos them with information about how eating avocados lowers cholesterol, for example.
She cooperates with the food bank to offer classes that not only distribute food, but provide cooking demonstrations and recipes, too. A recent recipe for Hamburger Stroganoff, printed in the June issue, was a big hit with Russian seniors she cooked for earlier this summer.
“Oh, this is the best recipe we ever tried,” they told her.
The publication serves Slavic Christians who have moved to the U.S. to escape religious persecution and who attend 18 local churches. Bistrevsky would like to include more religious content, holiday greetings and church listings, but because the magazine is sponsored by a government organization, she cannot.
Nonetheless, she loves her job. She makes sure to include children’s poems in Russian to encourage parents, who are usually more fluent in that language, to spend time reading to their children.
Russian women frequently make a point to tell her, “I like your magazine.”
“It brings a smile to my face,” Bistrevsky says. “I always say, ‘This is not my magazine. This is for you guys.’ “